Beer Fest Asia is young but it is recognised as a foremost event in Singapore for all lovers of a good brew and great entertainment. Edward Chia, managing director of Timbre Group, reminds Karen Yue that the event’s tradeshow component is just as critical to its success

This year marks the fifth instalment of Timbre Group’s Beer Fest Asia. Has the event progressed as you had envisioned it would?

Beer Fest Asia has grown into an excellent platform for new beer entrants, often used to launch new beer companies and products. Some established companies, like Asia Pacific Breweries, use this event to test beers that could potentially be distributed in this region, should they be suitable for the Asian palate. Unlike HOFEX and Food&HotelAsia (held in Hong Kong and Singapore respectively and are Asia-Pacific’s key food and hospitality tradeshows) which showcase many products, Beer Fest Asia focuses on the world of beers, from lagers to pilsners to ales. Beer Fest Asia also offers a look at commercial and craft beers.

The event this year had 40-45 exhibitors with 400 different beers from all over the world. We had 30,000 attendees over four days. Up to 15 per cent of that were from Asia. We want to grow this percentage. In the years ahead, we will invest more in regional marketing. In fact, the next phase for us is to increase Beer Fest Asia’s presence and garner more consumer and trade attendees. Most of the trade in Singapore have attended Beer Fest Asia. It is now time for us to encourage more trade attendees from South-east Asia who are interested in marketing new beers to their market.

This is a natural progression for the appreciation of FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods). Consumers always start off with a mainstream brand before desiring something premium and unique. When that transition happens, there is a gap between demand and supply, and Beer Fest Asia helps to create that supply of more varieties of beer. South-east Asia is ready for the evolution of beer consumption.

I imagine the growing population of educated and well-travelled Asians must play a part in this evolution.

Definitely. The increase in education, wealth and middle-class population spurs the demand for a greater variety of higher quality products. South-east Asia has the world’s highest concentration of fastest-growing middle class. As the middle class emerges, trade buyers will have to supply better products. If they don’t, they will lose out on tremendous opportunities.

Beer Fest Asia is an interesting concept. Besides the trade day, the event is a big party with great entertainment.

At a typical trade event, you come, you exhibit, you meet people and discuss business further at meetings later on. This formula works for some industries, like aerospace, where people don’t just walk right up and say, “OK, I’ll buy this jet”. For FMCG companies, it is not enough to just engage the trade; they need to create a relationship with end-consumers because ultimately it is them who drive business.
Therefore we feel that Beer Fest Asia has to be a hybrid event. It has to be a trade event with a huge consumer angle so that exhibitors can build a relationship between their brands and consumers. The event also provides an annual platform that brings true beer lovers together with companies that want to test their new beers.

So the entertainment aspect plays an important role.

Absolutely. It has to be a fun event as beer is a fun product, and people need to experience it in a fun environment. Furthermore, the entertainment component of Beer Fest Asia presents a strong front for event marketing in some Asian countries where beer is a sensitive product. In our regional marketing, we would actually like to harness more of social media, but we realised that in some geography, beer is a word that is censored. You won’t go far with Google and Facebook ads. We have to respect the culture and religion of different countries.

How has the entertainment lineup on consumer days evolved through the years?

Live music goes hand in hand with beers, so we started Beer Fest Asia with a rock stage and later grew to include blues. Beyond live music, we think Asians need to laugh a bit more, so we added a stand-up comedy club three years ago. Besides entertaining people, such content also acts as a marketing tool for exhibitors. A lot of beer brands, such as Guinness and Magners Irish Cider, are co-marketed with comedy. For the past two to three years, our comedy central had Magners as the official beer.
Beer is an interesting product – it needs to be attached to emotions.

Do you think the consumer part of Beer Fest Asia has overshadowed the trade aspect? It is such a popular festival among beer lovers and party-goers.

No. Having one day just for the trade is sufficient for buyers to connect with exhibitors. Like most trade events, Beer Fest Asia acts as a platform for buyers and exhibitors to introduce themselves to one another, and further their discussions later on.

Although the event has only one trade day, we have not forgotten the importance of having a strong trade element, and are continuously investing in strengthening the event’s value for exhibitors. We have added new components over the years, one of them being the Asia Beer Awards which sees an assembly of professional brew masters and established industry players judging participating beers. The awards provide an additional marketing tool for beer companies, as they can later promote their award-winning brews.

We also featured a whisky tent this year, as we believe that beer and whisky go hand in hand. We had three or four whisky companies showcasing their products in an air-conditioned tent with lounge seating and rock and jazz bands.

The consumer part of Beer Fest Asia does not overshadow the trade aspect because both are not mutually exclusive. Buyers are also consumers of beers and they must themselves enjoy what they eventually list in their restaurants, bars and hotels. We see them returning after the trade day as consumers. Remember – it is the consumer that drives FMCG demand, and it is in the interest of every beer company to make sure their beers and brands are exposed to the consumer. That creates the latent demand that encourages restaurants, bars and hotels to list their products.

Furthermore, the sale of beers during the consumer days allows exhibitors to recover some of their cost of participation. There is also nothing better than letting consumers experience the beer for themselves.

Beyond Beer Fest Asia and your hugely popular Timbre Rock & Roots, is Timbre Group looking to grow its events portfolio?

We are now at a phase where we are no longer looking to grow new events, but are instead focused on scaling our existing ones. Our priority now is to take successful events and bring them to other cities in the world. Having said that, we will consider opportunities to develop new events.

In the case of Beer Fest Asia, we find that it is now well positioned for South-east Asia. Therefore, we would like to develop a beer festival for North Asia and make the event more accessible for trade buyers in that part of the region. We are looking at destinations like Shanghai and Hong Kong.

How close are you to materialising this North Asian version of the festival?

We have identified a couple of partners and are looking at some venues. The toughest part is in identifying the right location for the event.

Will the North Asian event be a replica of what you have in Singapore?

We will replicate the current model, as it is successful. Beer will still be the focus, and entertainment will complete the whole experience. It is best not to reinvent the wheel. Coming up with the event idea is often simple. It is the execution – ensuring that everything goes smoothly and that content is perfect and draws people – that is the most challenging.

One can always dream. If you had all the resources at your disposal now, what sort of event would you create, and why?

(Long pause, with a smile) Oh, I believe in the power of festivals. I love them, as they bring people together. If I had all the resources in the world, I would create a festival that combines the best music of all genres and the best food and beverage. Food and drinks feed the body and music feeds the soul. Human beings are communal creatures, so the best event will have to be one that can pull everyone from different countries, cultures and backgrounds together.

Edward Chia

No. Not here, not in Asia. There are no events in this region that bring together different cultures through music, food and drinks. There are great dining events and music events here, but not a single one that offers music, food and beverage components at an equally high standard. You are more likely to find a wonderful music festival with so-so dining options, or a great dining event with average music and entertainment. Why? Because it takes a lot of resources to create something like that. It is also a very risky project because the event will need a lot of people (in attendance) to make economic sense.

Asia is a very fragmented region due to different cultures, religions and languages, so it takes a lot of effort to bring everyone to a single location. It requires immense resources and stamina to build such an event. In Singapore, where the cost of doing business is very high, events must draw huge (attendee) numbers and be very profitable from the get-go. Organisers do not have the time to grow the event slowly, or to experiment and tweak it along the way. Organisers must get the right mix and succeed right from the start.