10 Ways to Nail Your Fringe Press Release

Posted Leave a commentPosted in Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Marketing, Publicity

A press release for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival (or any other fringe or major arts festival for that matter) is different to any other press release you will write!

You have about 4000 companies to compete with so it’s important to stand out, but how?

Here are 10 sure fire ways to smash your Fringe Press Release all the way to John o’ Groats.

  

1.       Have an Easy to Read Layout

Obviously you don’t wanna lose any of the information the press wants to see on a press release so make sure it still contains: company, show name, venue, dates (including any days off), time, show summary and contact information.  The key is in the format, ensure it is simple, concise and easy to read so that editors with a limited time can scan it in less than a minute and get all the information they need without having to message you to ask questions.

 

2.       Think Pyramid

Picture a pyramid, the bottom is a solid, wide foundation and it heads into a small sharp point at the top.  This is what you need to think when you’re writing the summary of your show.  The very first sentence should provide all the information needed to understand your show, the second should go into more detail, the third more again.  It is also important to remember that a lot of Fringe Publications either can’t afford or don’t have enough time for copy writers so it is most likely they will pull copy directly from your press release.  It is therefore important that wherever the press copy and paste information from within you press release that it make sense both in context to the show as a stand alone paragraph but also each paragraph needs to be different enough that the whole passage could be used.

 

3.       Find your Unique Selling Point (USP)  

There are thousands of shows, so that fact that you are putting one on is not special enough so find what makes your show individual and more importantly publishable.  Then in your very first summary sentence spell this out.  You will capture the press with a stand out, breath taking, heart stopping, attention grabbing, killer first sentence.  Once you find the hook you have found your USP.  It might come from the content of your show, your personal background or the history of your company but you need to find it to grab that press attention.

 

4.       Keep it short 

I always start off by composing my Press Releases in Word or Pages, that way I can ensure they never go over one sheet of A4.  It also allows me to format it beautifully before I copy and paste it into an email.  Always keep in the back of your mind that the receiver will have hundreds of emails just like yours daily so they don’t have the time or inclination to spend more than a few minutes on each one so the more concise and to the point the better.

 

5.       Don’t Spam!

This means 2 things!

Firstly, don’t just send your show out to every publication ever!  Pick the ones specific to your show!  Basically, Chortle doesn’t care about your World War II Children’s Puppet Show in the way that CBBC News isn’t bothered about your Stand Show entiled ‘C-Bombs ‘R’ Us’.

Secondly, don’t send them out constantly.  There is nothing worse than receiving hourly emails from the same company across the entire month of August.  If anything it makes the press more inclined to ignore you! But, this doesn’t mean you cant send it out again if something awesome happens during the run that you believe is press worthy.  

A good rule of thumb is to sent one out in the few months before the fringe, one in opening week, and one if anything important happens in the run like you get a 5 star review from the Scotsman or win a Fringe First. 

You may also want to sent out ‘Diary snippets’, information that doesn’t warrant a whole article but is still a newsworthy anecdote.  Maybe you have had to cancel a show or had a celeb in attendance.  I once saw a performance of ‘The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee’ with Anthony Rapp (from the original Broadway cast of Rent) doing audience participation in with the performers made him spell out the word: ‘LEASE: Meaning another word for RENT’.  Fun pieces like this are noteworthy!

 

6.       Tailor your Press Release 

Different publications have different opinions.  Tailor your press release to suit that publication.  The financial times would expect a much more formal press release than comedy blogedy for example.  I know it can be crazy time consuming doing this and incredibly tedious (like writing individual cover letters when applying for jobs) but it can make a serious difference.

 

7.       Be careful with quotes

Don’t go overboard cramming in every vaguely positive press quote you’ve ever had.  One or two powerful quotes from well know publications will do just fine!  Also, don’t go to vague!  Editors won’t be conned if you include ‘Excellent’ as a quote as for all they know it could have originally read ‘This show was anything BUT Excellent’.  Make sure the quote is specific and attention grabbing.  Something like: ‘An excellent display of physical theatre creating a powerful image of our current day political world’ is much better.  Finally, keep in mind that quotes don’t hold much weight if not from a reputable source.  Simply, a quote from The Times is much better than one from your Best Friend’s Grandma.

 

8.       Stating Awards won and Claims to Fame

All awards won and included in your press release should be relevant and from industry known organisations.  The press don’t care that you passed your cycling proficient in 1994 (unless I guess your doing a comedy show about participating in the Tour de France).  The do care if you or your company had a sell out show at the fringe last year or you won the Perrier Comedy Newcomer Award. 

 

Exactly the same applies to claims to fame! Were you in the final of Britain’s Got Talent this year? Good for you, tell the press.  Did you come 6th in Dorridge Village Hall’s Annual Open Mic Night? Still good for you, but the press, probably not so bothered!

 

9.       Be original

Both in terms of copy as mentioned above, but if appropriate, you can think about Gimmicks.   They can definitely work if they’re small, clean and sent to the right people.  Think more condoms with your show details on rather than blow up dolls, rock with you show name in rather than your show spelt out in alphabet spaghetti, a card which opens and plays one of your songs rather than a full barber shop quartet invading the office to sing it, you get the idea.

10.   Do NOT send your Press Release as an Attachment!

I know it’s tempting, after all you have spent all that effort formatting and editing getting your press release to look beautiful!  But don’t!  Imagine for a second that you are the review editor for Broadway Baby and sitting in your inbox are 3,500 emails from different companies each with a 1MB attachment.  That is 3.5GB worth of info clogging up someone’s business email!  Nobody wants that! 

So don’t send images either, although if it is key to your show ensure they are low resolution thumbnails.

Also don’t send a link to find your press release elsewhere like on your Facebook page, chances are it will simply not be looked at.  The least interaction to get to your show information the better!

No attachment means no cover letter is necessary either!  So both your life and the journalist your contacting’s life is made so much easier!

 

So nail those Press Releases Edinburgh!  If you’ve got a Killer first sentence or a winning Gimmick then tell us in the comments below!

Captain Corelli’s Lost Mandolin

Posted Leave a commentPosted in Marketing, Publicity, Theatre
How a terribly expensive accident became excellent free marketing.
theatrical programme for captain corelli Birmingham REP
Theatrical Programme for Captain Corelli’s Mandolin Birmingham REP

I can’t imagine how Alex Mugnaioni, the lead actor playing the titular role of ‘Captain Corelli’s Mandolin’ felt when he left a priceless 129-year-old mandolin on a train during rehearsals in London.

Having worked as a Stage Manager in theatre in a past life, if an actor came into rehearsal to fess up to losing a traditional, round back, century old, tricky to source, crazily expensive musical instrument I don’t think I could have helped being pretty cross and may have had a tiny breakdown. A quick look on eBay will tell you that these bad boys retail for up to £350. Definitely not a small chunk of the props budget and probably a large percentage of the overall production budget

But this production coproduced from Neil Laidlaw, Church & State Productions, Rose Theatre Kingston and the Birmingham REP took it in their stride creating the perfect masterplan for how to use this nightmare event and use it as a marketing advantage.

At the post show talk at the Birmingham REP actor Kate Spencer explained that when this news was passed around their cast WhatsApp group she thought it was a publicity stunt. Well, it may have been an accident, but the team definitely used it to their advantage.

So exactly what did they do?

As soon as the incident came to light the company put out announcements across popular news platforms in London, a desperate and genuine appeal for its safe return. This almost immediately went viral not only locally but webpages and newspapers nationwide, across the theatre-verse and even reaching viewers and listeners at the BBC. After all there’s nothing the UK public love more than story that is so steeped in hilarious irony: Captain Corelli’s Mandolin Lost on Train.

I can see what you’re thinking, technically they didn’t do much, they just let the news travel along the grapevine, but that’s not all they did! They went out guns blazing with the best marketing weapon they had available to them: Alex Mugnaioni. That’s right, who better to tell the story of how the mandolin went missing? Actors are natural born storytellers, so it made perfect sense to send him out on interviews. He was able to comically relay the unfortunate tale and spend the remainder of the time hyping up the show.

theatrical set birmingham red
Theatrical Set of Captain Corelli’s Mandolin

Whatever they did it seemed to have work as on 4th July 2019 ‘Captain Corelli’s Mandolin’ began a run at the Harold Pinter Theatre on the West End. And if you get the chance you should see it, it is a simple, beautiful yet incredibly powerful interpretation of the story.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to say the only reason ‘Captain Corelli’s Mandolin’ have been able to transfer to the West End is because of that lost mandolin. It helps that it is a great play written by the fabulous creative writer Rona Munro. It is a collaboratively produced piece which means it is well funded and has a much wider existing fanbase to market to reaching wide across the UK. It is based on one of the bestselling love stories of all time (with a massive 1.5 million copies sold internationally at last count). I don’t think anyone hasn’t attended at least one wedding which quoted the book in a reading: ‘Love is a temporary madness…’. And finally, despite being set during the second world war, a time of death and despair it ends with an over whelming feeling of hope, something that everyone needs at this current moment in time.

As P. T. Barnum said: ‘There is no such thing as bad publicity’ which is the lesson to be learnt from this. Turn negatives into positives. Turn misdemeanours into online content. After all, a bad day is always a great story!

Have you ever turned a blip into a success story? We’d love to hear from you! Just whack it in the comments below.

How to get tickets? – CLICK HERE

Further Creative Reading
Read the full wedding quote here 
Read the full interview with Alex here
Read more about the novel here