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Monday 7 January 2013; 18:38

About and Background

Anime Festival Asia 2012 (AFA12)

What is it?

An annual event that serves as a:

· Platform for lovers of Anime, Manga and Japanese subculture

· Platform for businesses within the Anime and Manga industry to socialize and form partnerships through industry talks.

Inaugurated in 2008, AFA opened to overwhelming success. Being the first event of it’s kind in the Southeast Asian Region, it features singers, voice actors and other players in the anime industry.

Organized by Sozo, an entertainment and youth marketing company with a focus on Japanese pop-culture, along with Dentsu a Japanese advertising and public relations company, AFA12 boasts a turnout of over 85 000 participants from all around Asia and has, over the years installed itself as Asia’s Premiere Anime event

Date: 11 November 2012

Location: Singapore Expo Halls 7 and 8

Video by Omoshiroi Studios

Layout:

Above is the event floor plan (Hall 7 only). Indicated in pink are stores selling various products related to Japanese Subculture whilst indicated in blue are booths set up by industry players. The industry booths are designed to display the products and services offered by the company in hope of attracting clients, investors and partners.

Hall 8 houses a main stage, which event goers have to pay an additional amount to enter. The main stage features interviews and meet and greet sessions of singers, voice actors and even anime producers. Promotional events for upcoming anime and singers are also sometimes included

A Talk given by Danny Choo, an industry Professional

Target Audience:

The audience for this event is defined both via interest as well as geographically. The geographical region in question is Southeast Asia as related satellite events are held in other countries throughout the year, leading up the flagship event in Singapore.

Countries involved in the satellite and flagship events are Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore, however the event also aims to draw a crowd from other Asian Countries by hosting sub-events like the Regional Cosplay Championship, involving participants from the above countries and other countries like Thailand and the Philippines.

Publicity

Social Media:

Anime Festival Asia has its own Facebook page. Updates regarding the event are uploaded months before the event itself, these updates usually concern the availability of specific merchandise, event details as well as the lineup of acts that are going to perform at the event.

A webpage is also available and provides schedules of the day’s events, a map of the event floor plan and a page for event-goers to pre order their tickets.

This event has always been largely promoted via forums related to J-Subculture. Having been running for five years, it already has a rather considerable following. Media passes are also given to popular subculture blogs, which blog about the event over the years and give it coverage and publicity.

Media Coverage

The event has been covered in local publications and news sites:

The Straits Times

http://www.straitstimes.com/breaking-news/lifestyle/story/anime-festival-asia-20121111

XinMsn (Photo Gallery)

http://technology.xin.msn.com/lifestyleasia/anime-festival-asia-2012

AsiaOne

http://www.asiaone.com/News/Latest%2BNews/Singapore/Story/A1Story20121112-382853.html

Toyota Singapore: News and Events http://www.toyotasingapore.com.sg/about/news_and_events/afa2012.aspx

Straits times focused on the event’s popularity by comparing its turnout to those of other subculture events and XinMsn ran a photo gallery showcasing some of the Cosplays.

Other news sites like AsiaOne focused on the rocketing production and ticket costs for the event and how fans are irked but still willing to attend the event despite increasing prices. This is an example of less-than-positive coverage for the event.

Not to mention coverage by popular subculture blogs and websites, for instance, DannyChoo.com

Both the mainstream media and alternative media outlets covered the event quite extensively, with mostly good and neutral press.

Evaluation:

As an overall, the event was a success, promised programmes and acts were delivered on time without much hiccup but crowd control proved to be a recurring problem through the course of the event.

Like so. (Picture Taken from AFA12's official Photo Album)

If I were to change certain things in the execution of the event it would be to open more entrances and exits the event grounds. During the event, rows of unopened doors flanked the hall with only one or two, far away from each other, opened. I will do this both for ease of movement and to prevent a bottleneck situation that occurred on the afternoon of the second day.

The event was also hit by the shortage of merchandise at a main attraction booth on the second day it was open to the public. Nevertheless, people still queued up for the sold-out merchandise before the stipulated opening time. There was a lot of unhappiness when these people eventually found that the products had sold out. A notice regarding the fact that the products were sold out was put up the morning before the event.

http://robotsgonebad.com/afa-12-sword-art-online-fans-wipe-merch-day-1/

The following link does not detail the unhappiness of event-goers but does make clear that the large crowd was unanticipated.

Since the targeted turn out for the event was 85 000, more products could have been purchased in the first place. While there is a possibility that not all event-goers would want to purchase the merchandise, its exclusive availability at the event was hyped and pitched as a main selling point of AFA12

Also steps could be taken to show that the products had been sold out beforehand. For instance a large sign over the booth indicating that the products were sold out the evening of the first day right when the products were sold out. Lastly, they could have simply shut down the shop counter of the booth since there were simply no more products to sell instead of leaving it open and causing more confusion.

Also, during the first day (10 November 2012) “I Love Anisong” Concert, one of AFA 12’s main offerings, there were multiple audio hiccups and delays during the live performance by the Artiste Fripside, similar hiccups with the audio system also occurred during other acts. The set-list by the band Flow had to be cut short due to these delays.

Here is a sampling of the complaints regarding the event taken from AFA12’s Facebook Page. (http://www.facebook.com/animefestivalasia?fref=ts)

The delays I can overlook, but the sound system was HORRIBLE. The vocals were blurry, and when the girls shouted into the mike my ears felt like they were going to start bleeding.
Very sad that Fripside's vocals were also affected. They were one of my main reasons to buy tickets.
Also disappointed that Flow's performance seemed very short. Wondering if they were cut due to the time delays?11 November 2012 at 12:20 · Like · 15

Having a crazy night. LiSA performance is the best out of the eight of her live performance i had seen. Nobody reason, gamble rumble, level 5 judgement , only my railgun are the 4 songs that dominated the seasons when it's anime is on air, and It is a great set list. Just the sound system problem is terrible. feel like vomit throughout the concert make me very bad.11 November 2012 at 14:06 via mobile · Like · 2

I sincerely hope you apologize to Flow for cutting short their performance & fripside for the audio.issues. 12 November 2012 at 00:56 · Like · 10

However marked improvement was made on the concert held on the second day (11 November 2012). This was noticed by some concert goers.

good job! I'm amazed that the concert on Sunday is such a big improvement from the Saturday one. I must salute the management for making all the necessary improvement in such a short time. Bravo!13 November 2012 at 01:59 · Like

Audio system was much better last night. Thank you for fixing the issues. Please bring Sphere back next year!!12 November 2012 at 10:07 via mobile · Like · 5

Audio failures and delays should be avoided especially in the case of an event where big-name acts are brought in. It is good that the technical team responded effectively the next day, however perhaps more sound rehearsals could take place to ensure the equipment are in working order.

While the event itself was a success there were still hiccups here and there mostly due the large crowds the event drew (bottlenecks and merchandise shortage). The technical problems faced during the concerts are serious because concertgoers were charged from $50 to $488 for tickets and must have been disappointed at the quality of the concert as compared to the priciness of the tickets.

In summary, the event mostly succeeded in delivering what it promises to its target audience, albeit with some problems. But for an event of such a large scale and unique nature, it was pretty well done.