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The Singapore Tattoo Show 2009
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The Singapore Tattoo Show
Harnessing the Power of Facebook for Social Media Marketing
Due to some excellent social media marketing, the Inaugural Singapore Tattoo Show managed to gather an attendance of 15,000 – a figure that was 3 times of what they expected. This case study looks into the virtual buzz created about the event, and describes how a Facebook group was able to draw an unexpectedly large crowd to a first-time-ever event.
The 1st Annual Singapore Tattoo Show, held January 9-11, 2009, was endorsed and supported by Singapore Tourism Board and included Show Ambassador Chris Garver of Miami Ink. The goal was to get 5,000 visitors to the show where over 120 artists from around the globe representing all the various modern tattoo styles ticked away with their machines. It was supposed to be the biggest tattoo convention ever organized in South-East Asia. All sorts of fun and funky exhibitors were there and Emcee & Show DJ Shawn Lee pumping awesome sounds throughout the hall.
The convention which lasted three days was organized by Kirby Lian (Extreme right in photo), from Utopia Studio, who is one of Singapore’s best-known tattoo artists. Utopia Studio is a young start-up company that combines vision and passion for the tattoo artistry, bearing the charter to change the social norms associated with the permanence of this art form.
Behind the company is a team comprising Kirby Lian, who is a professional tattoo artist-entrepreneur with 7 years' industry experience and a marketer formerly from a multinational company. Having developed a wide network of global tattoo artists of whom many are considered close friends, this team aims to promote the tattoo industry for the appreciation and commercialism of tattoo art.
In Kirby Lian’s own words, “The tattoo show is an event that we know will draw different and varied visitors, keen to be educated, experience the art and be entertained. Some enthusiasts travel around the world to take part in tattoo shows, it is a time in which this art is experienced on one's own skin and, it is difficult not to be affected by the unique atmosphere that makes tattoos a very familiar and easy form of body art for everybody”
Since it was a first-time-ever event, the funds were limited. In October, Peters created the Facebook Group called Tattoo Artistry as a promotional tool for the event and within two weeks it went from 100 people to 1000.The way he went about it was to start the group off with 100 of his friends who would be open to the idea of tattoos, and then went about the internet and set up Google alerts for anything related to tattoos or to Chris Garver (who is a celebrity tattoo artist who was also invited to the convention). The Facebook Group Tattoo Artistry now has 4,400 members which makes it Asia's largest social network for the tattoo industry, tattoo enthusiasts, and fans
Peters chose Facebook over any other social networking site, such as MySpace or Friendster because he was much more familiar with the site. Also, he did try to add a group to LinkedIn to cater to those professionals who have tattoos, but he found that there was no traction and he got no significant response from the group on LinkedIn. Even the naming convention of the Facebook group was very important. Says Peters, "If I had named the Facebook Group the first Singapore Tattoo Show, there would be no traction into taking it to the second show ... so by me making it a generic one allows me to carry that group [for the next two shows]."
The passion of the members of the Tattoo Artistry Facebook group for "their event" meant promoting to their friends. The online community included people eager to attend the live event. Instead of relying on buying expensive advertising, Andrew built a community of passionate fans who built anticipation and buzz for the event. Due to their voluntary marketing to other tattoo enthusiasts, the viral effect was immense and eventually led to 15,000 people attending the Tattoo Show.
In the words of David Meerman Scott, the bestselling author of The New Rules of Marketing & PR, and The World Wide Rave: "As the tremendous success of the Tattoo Artistry Facebook group driving attendees to the Singapore Tattoo Show illustrates, social media is an important component in an overall marketing strategy. But marketers can't put all of their efforts solely into social media. It is still important to have an offline marketing plan and to work with mainstream media to help tell your story to an interested audience,"
Video - Social PR Catches up with Andrew Peters
In addition to the Facebook group, Andrew Peters used his own blog to market the Singapore Tattoo Show. His blog, http://aplink.wordpress.com, is widely recognized on Google. Therefore, he chose to use an existing, popular blog to drive traffic to the Tattoo Show, rather than setting up a new blog as it would take a considerable amount of effort to have it recognized. His blog posts publicising the Singapore Tattoo Show can be found here.
Says Peters, in his blog:
“The experience I have had with working with the 1st Singapore Tattoo Show 2009 has been amazingly rewarding and I have met hundreds for people from all over the world and via facebook over 4000 have joined our group - amazing.The passion, enthusiasm and community spirit is unmatchable compared to other groups that I participate in so I have created another site to allow for more community buidling, jobs, groups and more. The url is http://tattooartistry.ning.com”
Tattoos are a passion for some and an art form for others. For most people a tattoo is a very popular fashion trend that exploded in recent years and has become a part of the collective imaginary of artistry thanks to advertising, fashion, movies and TV which have used tattoo icons for messages that underline the freedom of choice of each individual.
The 1st Annual Singapore Tattoo Show, held January 9-11, 2009, was endorsed and supported by Singapore Tourism Board and included Show Ambassador Chris Garver of Miami Ink. The goal was to get 5,000 visitors to the show where over 120 artists from around the globe representing all the various modern tattoo styles ticked away with their machines. It was supposed to be the biggest tattoo convention ever organized in South-East Asia. All sorts of fun and funky exhibitors were there and Emcee & Show DJ Shawn Lee pumping awesome sounds throughout the hall.
The convention which lasted three days was organized by Kirby Lian (Extreme right in photo), from Utopia Studio, who is one of Singapore’s best-known tattoo artists. Utopia Studio is a young start-up company that combines vision and passion for the tattoo artistry, bearing the charter to change the social norms associated with the permanence of this art form. Behind the company is a team comprising Kirby Lian, who is a professional tattoo artist-entrepreneur with 7 years' industry experience and a marketer formerly from a multinational company. Having developed a wide network of global tattoo artists of whom many are considered close friends, this team aims to promote the tattoo industry for the appreciation and commercialism of tattoo art.
In Kirby Lian’s own words, “The tattoo show is an event that we know will draw different and varied visitors, keen to be educated, experience the art and be entertained. Some enthusiasts travel around the world to take part in tattoo shows, it is a time in which this art is experienced on one's own skin and, it is difficult not to be affected by the unique atmosphere that makes tattoos a very familiar and easy form of body art for everybody”
Kirby Lian appointed Pacific West Communications to handle the marketing communications for the show. Pacific West Communications is an integrated marketing consultancy that specializes in public relations for companies in the information technology and associated industries. The company has clients spanning over 3 continents, Sydney, London and Asia Singapore. The Regional Director of Pacific West Communications, Andrew Peters was the man in charge of the project. With several years of experience in traditional publishing, public relations and marketing, he was the ideal person to be in charge of an initiative like this – attracting people to a Tattoo Show in conservative Singapore. The initial PR efforts using the traditional press release were less viral, and then Peters came in to rev up the social media aspect of the strategy.
Since it was a first-time-ever event, the funds were limited. In October, Peters created the Facebook Group called Tattoo Artistry as a promotional tool for the event and within two weeks it went from 100 people to 1000.The way he went about it was to start the group off with 100 of his friends who would be open to the idea of tattoos, and then went about the internet and set up Google alerts for anything related to tattoos or to Chris Garver (who is a celebrity tattoo artist who was also invited to the convention). The Facebook Group Tattoo Artistry now has 4,400 members which makes it Asia's largest social network for the tattoo industry, tattoo enthusiasts, and fans
Peters chose Facebook over any other social networking site, such as MySpace or Friendster because he was much more familiar with the site. Also, he did try to add a group to LinkedIn to cater to those professionals who have tattoos, but he found that there was no traction and he got no significant response from the group on LinkedIn. Even the naming convention of the Facebook group was very important. Says Peters, "If I had named the Facebook Group the first Singapore Tattoo Show, there would be no traction into taking it to the second show ... so by me making it a generic one allows me to carry that group [for the next two shows]."
The passion of the members of the Tattoo Artistry Facebook group for "their event" meant promoting to their friends. The online community included people eager to attend the live event. Instead of relying on buying expensive advertising, Andrew built a community of passionate fans who built anticipation and buzz for the event. Due to their voluntary marketing to other tattoo enthusiasts, the viral effect was immense and eventually led to 15,000 people attending the Tattoo Show.
In the words of David Meerman Scott, the bestselling author of The New Rules of Marketing & PR, and The World Wide Rave: "As the tremendous success of the Tattoo Artistry Facebook group driving attendees to the Singapore Tattoo Show illustrates, social media is an important component in an overall marketing strategy. But marketers can't put all of their efforts solely into social media. It is still important to have an offline marketing plan and to work with mainstream media to help tell your story to an interested audience,"
Video - Social PR Catches up with Andrew Peters
In addition to the Facebook group, Andrew Peters used his own blog to market the Singapore Tattoo Show. His blog, http://aplink.wordpress.com, is widely recognized on Google. Therefore, he chose to use an existing, popular blog to drive traffic to the Tattoo Show, rather than setting up a new blog as it would take a considerable amount of effort to have it recognized. His blog posts publicising the Singapore Tattoo Show can be found here.
Says Peters, in his blog:
“The experience I have had with working with the 1st Singapore Tattoo Show 2009 has been amazingly rewarding and I have met hundreds for people from all over the world and via facebook over 4000 have joined our group - amazing.The passion, enthusiasm and community spirit is unmatchable compared to other groups that I participate in so I have created another site to allow for more community buidling, jobs, groups and more. The url is http://tattooartistry.ning.com”
http://www.bmeink.com/miniport/kirby001.ht
http://www.tattoo.com.sg/
http://aplink.wordpress.com/tattoos/
http://www.davidmeermanscott.com/
http://meetingspodcast.com/?p=316
http://marketing-interactive.com/news/10498
http://www.blogcatalog.com/topic/singapore+tattoo+show/
http://network.associationofvirtualworlds.com/profiles/blogs/social-media-stands-out-at
http://www.marcomprofessional.com/posts/david.meerman.scott/how-an-active-facebook-group-drove-15000-people-to-the-singapore-tattoo-show
http://www.24-7pressrelease.com/press-release/chris-garver-of-miami-ink-coming-to-singapores-1st-tattoo-show-with-endorsement-and-support-of-singapore-tourism-board-stb-67263.php
http://www.blogcatalog.com/search.frame.php?term=singapore+tattoo+show&id=7ba7c7942bf5cf0f1ff97a1fab459a0d
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Latest page update: made by brendalogy
, Apr 7 2009, 1:29 PM EDT
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