COMPANY REPORT AND PROMOTION PLAN

Company Report and Promotion Plan

Company report and promotion plan

Introduction

This report has been commissioned by James Armstrong of Hobby Star Marketing to critically analyse and evaluate the Abracadabra expo UK event. A general overview of the event will be provided as well as the event category it falls under and the implications of this. The event will then be analysed in terms of its social impact, the stakeholders involved and economic implications. This report is limited to the event information available on the internet and in the prescribed text for theory based arguments.

This report aims to advise Hobby Star Marketing on the current and future states of their event and as related to tourism theory, what impact this may have on social and economic factors, as well as impact on event stakeholders as a whole. In conclusion recommendations will be put forward as to the best approach for event organisers to take in the future to ensure all stakeholders are kept satisfied as well as the wider community.

Description of Event

Fan Expo UK is held annually at the end of each summer in UK and features three days of non-stop festivities in the areas of video games, anime, science fiction, horror and comic books. The expo has been running for 12 years with its name recently being changed from the UK National Expo. Fan Expo is held primarily in the London Metro Convention Centre and last year boasted over 37 000 admissions.

Fan Expo is a unique event targeted to a specific range of markets. Having been dubbed in the past the 'Nerd Prom', the Fan Expo draws visitors from all around the globe to London UK, enhancing awareness of the region and its status in gaming, anime, science fiction, horror and comic book realms. Due to these factors it is suitable to classify this expo as a Hallmark event. This type of event is typically defined as a major one time or recurring event of limited duration developed primarily to enhance awareness or appeal and profitability of a tourism destination in the short or long term. In order to obtain success such events rely primarily on their uniqueness, status or timely significance to create both interest and to attract attention (Ritchie, 1984, p.2; Getz 1997 pp.5-6 in Allen et al. 2005). Fan Expo is highly significant to its target markets and provides the host venue, community and destination as a whole with a competitive advantage over other conventions of a simular nature in North America (third largest event of its kind in this region) (Hobbystar 2006).

The Product

Our product is the service that is provided to clients. The service involves us acting as an agent, suppler and/or planner for any related feature to do with children's events or children at events. We believe there is a niche market for this service and that corporate, commercial and the general public would use this product. Research conducted by Mintel gives evidence of this as shown in the marketing section ...