Public snub SMH’s Spectrum Playground as ANZ sponsor admits ‘smaller than hoped’ crowd

The power of newspapers

Didn’t see any advertising for this event at all? Was there any done outside of the SMH?

#FAIL

If only Fairfax had some sort of marketing expert on their board who could have advised them on how to promote an event.

Sydney Festival, Vivid, Mardi Gras, Lunar New Year, Good Food Month, NYE… exactly how many more festivals does Sydney need?

if this had been in the space at Hyde Park it would have done much, much better. It was waaaay to spread out and didn’t really seem to have a strong theme to tie the whole thing together. For the first ‘go’ at a festival it was too big a venue to fill, I felt sorry for the food vans who were losing money just sitting there. Maybe the team who created this event should make a trip to Adelaide Fringe and look at The Garden of Unearthly Delights, lots of learnings there.

I don’t think weather can be blamed for the turnout – both Taste of Sydney in Centennial Park and the Coogee Foreshore event by Merivale were both well attended. It would seem that Spectrum isn’t really thought through as a concept, I fail to see its place in the market given its similarity to the Sydney Festival, Fairfax seem to be doing events for events sake at the moment!

This is so embarrassing. Did they seriously think 2 months after Sydney Festival people were going to flock to this event advertised almost solely in their newspapers?

Speaking to so many sydneysiders, no one knows what this is!

More awkward is the fact they have run around asking organisations to lump their existing shows in this festival to make it bigger by promising the shows free promotion in the magazine which no one saw.

Better luck next year.

If only they had advertised this in an mrec instead of a full page the ‘premium’ lifestyle section of the SMH…

had NO IDEA the damned thing was even on. Seriously, WHO is doing publicity for these people? Cos they deserved to be fired hard, fast and with a not-inconsiderable pay cut. The festival seems great but they’ve utterly screwed up on a PR front

Though it is sad to see an event like this fail, and the work that no doubt went into it, I have to derive some pleasure from seeing a corporate’s attempts to segregate ‘priority’ customers come to nothing 😉

Very well publicised on the SMH… behind a paywall… Oh, erm… ah, that’ll be it…

Agree @marc…this is a PR FAIL! Who did the PR? Did anyone even know it was on?

I hate to see any events fail, but absolutely terrible timing for an event that has considerable crossover demo wise with Sydney festival – plus everyone is normally pretty rinsed out of cash post January. if they come back next year, they should do this in November when things are warming up and people are a bit more flush. Plus the lack of marketing was obvious – hardly anything outside the paper itself. Someone must be getting a good telling off today!

The story suggests that ANZ will be asking questions, but they’re equally culpable, surely? As far as I can tell this festival is essentially a joint-venture between Fairfax and ANZ, who wanted a major Sydney cultural vehicle to build their brand. I think both parties are guilty of thinking that you can just rock up to the Sydney cultural scene in March and expect the event to work for you. Ironically ANZ are also a sponsor of March to Merivale which has done really well in its inaugural year.

Fairfax do their own PR in house – nough said. i have serious festival fatigue

Is it on again this weekend? If the weather is good I would be pretty keen to hit up a festival where I don’t have to line up. Sounds delightful.

…that’s so sad

Fairfax use Liquid Ideas for their Food and Arts Event PR

@TerryB You also don’t have to line up for a Nickleback concert, but I still might pass on both…

What we saw we loved – but we did only hear about it at the last minute. Would have loved to have had time to organise some friends to join us for a picnic, some tunes and what not. Going to see more this week.

I stumbled across their Instagram feed last night. I clicked through to the website on my phone and STILL couldn’t work out what it was all about. There was not enough information about events and I had no idea what kind of festival it is. I very quickly clicked away. Not surprised to see that it’s been a flop at all.

what ??? people didn’t spend what little free time they have to help promote a major banking brand ??

How dare they lol

No one knows it’s on. Even people I know who are usually savvy to events like these had no idea about it when I mentioned it to them on the weekend.

The timing isn’t great, either … Sydney Festival wasn’t that long ago.

If only they’d checked the viewability of their own ads

Wow sounds like a disaster!!

A newspaper teaming up with a bank- such a nostalgic combination. Much like a horse and cart. They had their day, now they belong in museums

Wonder if they’re looking for a new PR Agency?

Despite seeing ‘Spectrum Now’ posters and flags up for the past few weeks, I had no idea what it was, where it was, or when it was. Even the words ‘new Sydney Festival’ might have been useful.

Some serious brand positioning work needed there, and, you know, good old fashioned information.

Re: Dancing alone, it’s meant to be like that. No Lights No Lycra have a horse box for lone dancers to ‘let it all out’ in. Which is a pretty fun idea.

A serious brand problem for sponsor ANZ. What was the purpose? No headliners, city centric and messy. And as some other posters have noted, Sydneysiders are suffering festival fatigue. Unfortunately, Fairfax Media is not The New Yorker. They or even ANZ would have been better aligning with the Festival of Dangerous Ideas or TedX.

Why does a newspaper want to create its own festival? And how can they continue to review other festivals independently if the are now competitors in that space? Or be critical of ANZ if they depend on this bank’s money for their events branch? Also what public money was spent by the city and state to make this happen? Ideal stuff for a big critical investigation piece in SMH. Not.

seven shots of dismal failure. That’s cruel mumbrella . There’s peole and jobs behind this. Kinda funny but – gotta laugh aint ya.Glad it’s not me.

Classic old media play: create a new tangential product and then assume can you promote it through the existing properties. Problem is, no-one reads newspapers and everyone blocks ads. The failure of this event shouldn’t just worry ANZ, but every other company buying ads with Fairfax: they clearly don’t cut through.

That said, I did have a look at the festival line-up – (this article is doing more for Spectrum Now’s PR than anything intentional) – and some bands I really like are playing. I might actually check it out!

fairfax /smh relied almost entirely on their own mastheads to market the festival. Just goes to show how effective their newspapers are as a marketing channel….

If they were relying on print ads in newspapers as the only form of publicity, they are in more trouble than they think. Hadn’t even heard of this until I saw this article!

@Axel Rodt, in case you’re not aware Fairfax has a major events arm which dabbles in everything from food and cultural events to baby expos. Ever heard of diversified revenue streams? I guess not.

Hi friends
Stuart Gregor here and my firm Liquid Ideas does, indeed, proudly manage the public relations for Fairfax Food and Arts Events, and we do, on the whole, a pretty admirable job. You might not agree, that’s your right. Obviously no-one gainfully employed in a leading PR agency would do a job half as good as an anonymous commenter on mumbrella but we can only do our best. Spectrum Now is a really great idea, curated by a proper genius Richard Roxburgh and a vast number of events have sold out or are selling out fast. http://www.spectrumnow.com.au. The weather on the weekend was not crash hot for the playground, that’s true, and it’s a crowded market, true too. But it’s a great concept, the food and music is brilliant – Mary’s burger followed by Messina anyone? – and I implore all those who’ve not been to get down and see how good it is. I promise it’s a lot more fun than sledging hard-working people from behind your anonymous typewriters . . .or maybe not. . .

I like the idea of extending the newspaper’s well regarded Spectrum brand. But definitely a case of festival/party fatigue combined with a sudden nasty change in the weather.

I still don’t know what this is? What type of event is it? Is it a music festival?

Well defended Stuart – seriously.

Just had a look at the specturm now website. No clear outline of what the event is or what it aims to achieve. The festival info tab had great info about transport but nothing at all about what it is the festival is celebrating. Even established arts festivals where one could assume an understanding of the nature of the festival (eg MIFF) still take the time to communicate what the event is and why it takes place. This reeks of of ‘native content’ in an event based context. Bad weekend for real life clickbait dudes.

@Stuart – good on you for getting on here and defending your work. But the proof of the Mary’s burger is in the eating: your client has been humiliated.

Well there were several thousand odd packed along George and Park streets and at Hyde Park for The St Patricks Fay March and Family Day Sunday where the Guinness flowed endlessly, and that was promoted through a small independent Irish newspaper.

Who was responsible for the typo on the program cover ” Be immerse”?. And why didn’t the program make it clear how people could buy tickets? I assume Spectrum Now will meet the same fate as the AFR luxury event at the Sydney Opera House a few years ago, happen once and never be seen again.

Good learning for publishers doing events. As noted by other comments above there is a tendency to rely on our own media channels when it comes to house events.

I suppose if you only use your own channels then you need to be sure you have curated something awesome for your demographic and they’ll all show. Or otherwise think about the number of required attendees compared to your overall audience.

Well at least its getting some widespread PR now

Australia… Where the bloody hell are ya!?!?!

I’m Gen Y and I subscribe to the 7-day print and digital editions of the SMH. I definitely take notice of the ads. I just didn’t see much in the Spectrum Now festival that appealed to me. It all seemed a bit wishy-washy.

I wanted to go to the arts market but the information on the website was inadequate and I couldn’t work out when it was on. Doesn’t look like it’s been updated since the festival started as it still has a call out to potential stallholders.

Stuart Gregor – I had no idea this was on, the first I heard of it was today by looking through Gelato Messina’s facebook page, and even then when I saw they had a “Spectrum Now” stand.

And I am a SMH website regular! Good luck to those who don’t read it.

Defend your company all you want, the numbers speak for themselves – and the weather is a cop out and you know it (sounds like a convenient excuse to defend your job) considering all the other events had a great attendance.

My sister was in town & it was great to take her to this event. We had a blast & marvelled at our luck – delicious Messina desserts & hula hooping with no crowds or queues. Looking forward to going back this week, I’m sure things will pick up with the after work crowd?

What a hot mess – they should of advertised in the Sunday Telegraph

Ironically it was the smh that said similar things about Vivid in year 1. New festivals take time, at least they are having a crack. Maybe they could get Taylor Swift to perform at the Playground. Haters gonna hate! It appears the PR strategy is working based on today’s coverage. Expect to see huge crowds this weekend!

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-.....-boxb.html

ANZ should stick to banking or scrap taking 2 bucks everytime you use an ATM if this is how they spend it

Seems like a lot of space around the food area. Unsold?

Mark: The Telegraph hasn’t even been able to convince its western Sydney readers to like Abbott or support the sale of the electricity poles and wires, despite daily propaganda. I doubt they could persuade their readers to go to an arts festival.

Basically what everyone else has been saying + Major typos on the website & program.

For starters the “Good Weekend festival” has a much better ring to it.

@Stuart… your argument is a little weak and balances wholly on you assuring us that Spectrum Now is a good concept and that you have done a great job (and that Liquid Ideas is also awesome).

My counter-argument, utilising your logic..

No… just NO. Awful, rushed concept. Poor weather never stopped me attending a festival I really wanted to go to!

A manufactured event that’s marketed in papers no one buys. Yep, that’s going to work.

Not well thought out. Not well promoted.
No clear simple-to-understand offering. No reason for being.

Everytime I saw reference to it I found myself asking ‘What is this all about?’

They had no idea how to market this so called festival.

They believed their own bullshit. I bet they based the estimates on EMMA readership numbers…

@Ra Ra… A huge weekend wont make up the income needed for stallholders and foodies to re-book although it may patch ANZ’s worries! At least it worked out for the corporate.. Who needs the little guy nowadays?

#mark: at least one participant got much better coverage in Sydney Broadsheet than they did in any Fairfax publication. Sunday Tele wouldn’t have been a bad idea!

The Sunday Telegraph is the newspaper for Sydney events. Over the last two weeks, I’ve seen everything from the Ballet to Les Mis to Rocky Horror to Sydney Theatre Company to the Opera House all advertise with News several times.

This was once the bread and butter for Fairfax. Spectrum was the bible for entertainment. What happened? Is this ‘NOW’ event an attempt to re-energize the brand?

At least VIVID SYDNEY is on its way to save the day.

Maybe if they gave out free ecstasy.

@the facts: Fairfax have been flogging the festival on their websites. In fact there’s an ad for Spectrumnow running as a strip across the middle of the SMH homepage right now.

Sounds like a Greens festival to me. Maybe they should’ve held it in Nimbin?

I fully intended to go – and have guests and fully intended to recommend they go as well. But I read the program five times and still couldn’t work out what on earth it was about.
Felt truly dismayed that wonderful Fairfax, which is in the communications business, failed to communicate clearly in this instance. Worryingly for everyone whose brand is involved.

Stuart – could you please explain what the festival actually is and for??? PR is not just about getting people there… but letting them, and potential attendees why they might want to attend… so far all I can gather, is that I can eat gelato and dance by myself… sponsored by a newspaper and a bank… .

@Martina
“Hula hooping with no crowds or queues”
God bless ya Martina – I’m seeing a luenig cartoon with a little girl happily hula hooping all alone in a big empty city park. Makes me smile.

Having read this article and gone to the website, I still don’t know what Spectrum Now (seriously, the worst possible name…) is all about. According to Roxburgh, “Spectrum is, after all, a section that spans the impractical world of all the stuff between opera and gardening.” Any wonder it didn’t find an audience? I saw no promotion for it, and am wondering what’s the gap in the festival space it’s trying to fill.

I was a stall holder on the weekend ,
We all felt the pain!!!!!! I will never get those hours back again .
Shame though – could of been great !!

ANZ should sponsor Melbourne Festival or Sydney Festival or Brisbane festival or any one of the fabulous arts and cultural events out there rather than creating a new event. Are the existing festivals not offering enough activation opportunity? There are also fabulous Zoos, food and wine events, writers festivals…plenty of opportunities for a brand like this to sponsor. Why throw money at a brand new venture that clearly has no clear purpose when they could sponsor existing successful attractions with existing audiences and recieve the brand rub off from that. Don’t get it. Seems like “innovation” for it’s own sake to me.

In addition to above comments, what genuine art/music fan wants to go to a corporate festival? I can’t think of anything worse than having culture co-opted by a bank and publisher to peddle their wares. Big turn off!
As for the PR, I work in music media. Not only did I not see a single press release, nobody contacted for any kind of promo/editorial etc.
I also read SMH yet still, this is the first I’ve heard of this mess of a festival.

There is a glut of festivals in Sydney, which is their biggest problem. Fairfax and ANZ would be better of supporting an existing festival, rather than creating a new one.

Zaffy: All those events have been advertised in the SMH too. Fairfax still has loads of event and theatre ads.

ANZ used to sponsor Sydney Festival and must have left it to get involved with this rubbish. Obviously Sydney is Fesival’d out and this clearly has no differentiation and is clearly a grab for cash by a newspaper business trying to diversify. Poor timing, Poor promotion and poor market knowledge by ANZ,

Pretty sure ANZ were previously a major sponsor of Sydney Festival – at least for the 2014 gig. They must have been promised a pretty sweet deal by Fairfax to come on board for Spectrum Now.

Had no idea it was on – and still not quite clear what it is – until I read about it on Mumbrella. Admittedly I gave up on the SMH Spectrum magazine some years ago and now read only the Weekend Australian supplements on a Saturday for all my book/film/restaurant reviews etc

Easy to sledge the event, when you’re not involved… But the slightest opportunity, as proven by Renae Smith on an earlier comment where she promotes her own business (pr, apparently) and I’ll bet most will be there in spades!

The negativity of this article and subsequent discussion is outstanding. Looks like Spectrum Now has an event just for you lot!

http://spectrumnow.com.au/key-.....-a-critic/

Best wishes to the food vendors and everyone involved in the 200+ events over the days and weeks ahead. Hopefully Sydney has room for one more festival – only time will tell, not just one mumbrella bashing.

Perhaps we should all move to Adelaide with our Sunday Telegraph Australia Day bucket hat collection.

I cant believe such a huge waste of money on events by a major bank using profits creamed off from the customers. We should demand a refund on fees…..So little has come of it with so much (or so lack of) thoughts and efforts put into it. #Zero mark.

Seems Fairfax is fighting a bitter fight here. How can they claim “9000+” people visited if on every single moment we visited there were less then 200 people? Did nobody note the Fairfax video footage has no crowd shots? Vendors were giving away their food in despair. And how can SMH claim to be ‘Independent. Always.’ if they review the events in their own festival with no disclaimer upfront? Can’t wait for the glorious article proclaiming after a bumpy start it was a a strong second weekend and a worthy addition to Sydney’s events calendar. (Add quote from random visitor and happy sponsor)

They might need to advertise in the Daily Telegraph next time.

Sounds interesting; probably would have gone if I’d known about it.

Maybe they should have had a flock of Gold Coast meter maids handing out free cigarettes like in the good old days.

Would have gone if I knew about it

The website is appalling. I just spent 15 minutes trying to figure out what music events were on tomorrow. Looks like there is some good stuff in this festival, just needs to be explained and promoted better. It’s only the first year.

#Kate But will it actually be happening again next year? Maybe someone from Fairfax could let us know?

As a subscriber to SMH I was sick to death of Richard Bloody Roxborough and his wife being pushed in every possible part of the paper (and online), even when the Spectrum festival wasn’t mentioned. Eg. Richard can draw OOOH!
If the organisers thought that he was enough to attract people to the event, they thought wrong. Whatever you think of his acting ability, why would he be a credible literary, theatre or art critic?
The event would have been better served by articles which actually made some sense about the purpose and vision of the festival, and focused on other people involved.

HAHAHAHA

Agree – too many festivals this time of year. The Sydney Writers Festival is next. Plus no funds after school fees, books etc. Have it in November when the weather is warming up. I wanted to go there but it seemed too hard to cart the kid and get home again from the Domain at night without a car. Hyde Park is so much better being contained and central. Then you can snack on events in between doing other things in the city. The Festival of Sydney got it nailed by using that space. I hope this new festival is on next year as there are some really talented people working and performing on it

ahahahahaha OMG dying from laughter reading this!!!!

Not sure if they have someone on the board who can advise about leading an effective campaign, but they may have a few who can advise on how to turn an event nobody engaged with into a cracking case study video.

Good news, the marketing is working well.

I saw an advert in Perth yesterday for the Sprectrum event.

Now, considering that the event was being held in Sydney and finished 2 days earlier, i challenge anyone to say the marketing wasnt spot on!

LOL it wasn’t spot on

100th post!

@JB

Ha! Shows what you know… the ad was STILL being run….
in PERTH! – Over the EASTER WEEKEND (2 weeks after it finished)… still saying it was spot on?

Bloody marketing people not understanding advertising 🙂