BACKGROUND
In just four short years the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Festival – Brisbane (MBFF) has positioned itself as the premier fashion event in Queensland and generated national recognition as being the location for launching Spring/Summer collections to the country.
Timed to coincide with the arrival of Queensland’s strongest fashion season, the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Festival - Brisbane, hosted by South Bank, will run from Saturday 7th through until Friday 13th August 2010. The festival will feature an exciting array of the best local, national and international design talent, events and parades and be completely accessible to a rapidly growing consumer audience.
To capitalise on the growing interest in these ‘consumer-driven’ fashion events and to allow more people an opportunity to experience the festival, a large marquee with raked seating will be housed at the Cultural Forecourt, South Bank which would become home for the 2010 campaign.
Almost 20,000 people attended shows and workshops last year which enabled local and national designers, top fashion graduates, fashion retailers and shopping precincts, to present their Spring/Summer collections to the buying public and national and local media.
Costing in excess of $850,000 to stage, the 2010 festival is planned to feature nine group shows, a swimwear/resort parade, a National Media Luncheon, a series of fashionable high teas, an Australian Fashion Graduate of the Year competition, a fashion highlights parade, and a ‘fashion after hours’ program – supplying the public with a broad selection of accessible fashion events to choose from and attend, including free events in Queen Street Mall and tickets ranging in price from $33 to $125.
The 2009 festival achieved the key following results:
- Increased attendance across all ticketed and free festival events and exhibitions with approximately 20,000 people in total – an increase of 33% on 2008
- The festival achieved an increase of 61% on 2008 tickets sales
- Print media coverage of $14,329,051.71 an increase of nearly $10 million, with combined readership figures in the region of 154,626,774
- In excess of 3.7 million hits on www.mbff.com.au with 29,000 plus Unique Visitors to the site – an increase of over 40% on 2008
- Based on the participating designers willing to provide results, we have ascertained the following:
- August 2009 sales increased by 13%
- August 2009 foot traffic increased by 10%
- September 2009 sales increased by 13%
- September 2009 foot traffic increased by 15%
- 2009 festival guests at ticketed and Queen Street Mall events planned to spend an additional average of $176 on fashion following the festival, resulting in an increased spend of approximately $2.9 million based on 16,500 attendees (we estimate a further 3,500 people attended free fashion exhibitions staged at the same time and promoted under the MBFF umbrella)
- In addition, an average of $509 was spent on retail goods/fashion, tickets, food/beverage and travel expenses by approximately 9,000 people attending ticketed events, resulting in an approximate spend of $4.58 million in the lead-up to and during the festival
- Growth of the regional student program from 2 students attending in 2008 to 8 students from Cairns, the Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast participating as part of their education and development this year
- 5% increase in attendance of visitors to the festival from outside the Brisbane City Council area including immediate areas north and south of Brisbane and all of Queensland
- The festival resulted in job creation for 263 people with a combined worth of more than $400,000 and included models, stylists, bookers, management team and production crews
- Created strong exposure for Autism Queensland - the festival’s chosen charity for 2009
An intensive campaign is already underway to develop and manage key aspects of the festival including event management, designer and styling negotiations, sponsorship sourcing and management, and implementation of a national public relations strategy in the lead-up to and during the six days of the festival.
MBFF 2010 will further enhance Brisbane’s positioning as a city of creativity and style and its reputation to stage a dynamic, consumer-driven event that will:
- boost retail sales and the city’s economy by supporting another home-grown industry;
- increase awareness for our local industry;
- increase visitation to the city; and
- positively re-enforce the city’s ability to stage international standard events.
