Right, this part is really hard. There is unfortunately a reason why people can spend thousands and thousands of pounds on a PR to do this for them. But, it’s not impossible. You can do the basics.
Keep in mind that, same as anything else in the Fringe (or in life in general I suppose), you simply can’t compare your press coverage to someone paying for a PR. A lot of publicists have spent years and years building up not only a fantastic knowledge of press but also good relationships with journalists and publications who will open your emails. Which you can’t really fast track.
BUT, let’s do some PR basics shall we.
WHAT IS PR?
You know all of those ‘Top 10 Debuts To See This Fringe’, ‘The 5 Comics To Watch This Year’, and ‘I married a ghost and now I have a great Fringe show idea’ etc etc etc? That’s all PR. And reviews. They are also PR.
Some of it is totally organically earned and the journalist doesn’t engage at all with publicists, they just write the top 5 comics that they genuinely think you should see. But a bunch of it comes from publicists sending a press release pitching a show for inclusion in these lists/publications/features, and then journalists having a look and deciding to include them.
PR campaigns in general can include:
Previews (your show including in top shows to see at Fringe etc)
Interviews with you
Reviews
News Coverage
Influencer invites
WHAT IS A PRESS RELEASE?
A press release is typically a news story that a publicist has written, and sent to journalists or publications who can, in theory, copy and paste then post. This can be anything from venue announcements to the Fringe Society announcing the programme – you can look for examples online and see how journalists cover these.
For the Fringe, it’s probably unlikely that someone will just copy & paste your show press release, but this is the document that pitches your show and gives journalists a good starting point for if they want to review you, interview you, include you in a feature etc.
And you do need one. Don’t get AI to write it. Journalists can tell.
It should include all of the basic information about your show like the listing details, but it also needs to tell people why they should give a fuck about your show. Because there are loads of shows. Literally thousands. So what’s so special about yours?
The release should include:
The show name
Your biggest hook
Brief background on you
Short description of your show
Some quotes – from fellow comedians, previous press reviews
A lead image
A link to more high res images
The show dates, venue, link
What date you are letting reviewers in from* (*more on this to come)
Your press release should answer any of the questions that journalists will have before they include or consider you. Don’t think you’re creating demand by including copy like ‘you’ll have to see the show to find out more etc’, it doesn’t work like that.
For context, you can click below to download Ayo Adenekan’s show press release from last year. You will also get the rest of our Fringe Survival freebies in the same email: the editable budget, the promo planner and the tech rehearsal checklist. The main hooks were the funding which was brand new, plus his local ‘Edinburgh Boy’ tales, and his rising star quality. We demonstrated this with quotes & accolades, and described the show.
HOW TO PITCH YOUR SHOW FOR COVERAGE
Firstly, get really clear on what you are pitching for, and to who.
Blind BCC email pitches to everyone and anyone likely won’t work, it could even get you in a journalist’s bad books if you’re spamming them with a show that isn’t relevant for them – are they a theatre critic, and your show is stand up comedy? Don’t pitch to them!
What is your show about? Who is it for? Is there anything you’re particularly interested in or passionate about that you could write about as a feature, which links in some way to your show? Think of an elevator pitch: if you only had 60 secs to convince this journo to cover your show, what would you tell them? And include that in your pitch email. Find publications who cover that kind of writing or those topics, or whose audience overlaps with yours.
For example, last year the wonderful Jodie Sloan had a show called ‘Is She Hot’, which told the story of a viral tiktok video leading to a push notification to millions of TikTok users with a picture of her face and the caption ‘Is She Hot?’. That’s a helluva hook. So whilst this was of course a great show, the show was kind of irrelevant, in that your average reader of certain publications would read that story.
(Basically, the story wasn’t “this is a really good stand up show”. I’m sure your show IS a really good stand up show. But you having a really good stand up show isn’t ‘news’, you know?)
Jodie ended up being interviewed by The Metro and an exclusive feature written about her, which told her story, and then included a link to the Fringe show.*
(*I should of course mention that PR goddess Colette Baptie pitched for this, so don’t beat yourself up if you can’t secure this on your own, but just an example of a great hook.)
And it’s tedious work, brainstorming your hooks, looking up publications, googling email addresses, and tailoring a pitch to each person. It’s super time consuming. So be realistic with yourself. If this is something you truly do not have time for, then maybe you can live without. But if some media attention is important, or you have spare time to really focus on show promo, then it can be worth it.
And when writing the pitch, remember that journalists are super busy. Make their lives easier. Tell them exactly what you’re after. Is it a review invite, a feature pitch, an interview pitch? Don’t make them ask you more Qs because if they have to ask, it’s more likely they just won’t include you.
Remember to consider your USP: can you be included in debut round-ups? LGBTQ acts to see at the Fringe? Scottish Comedians? Think of themes you can be included in rather than just standalone articles as there are always more lists than individual pieces.
For the sake of timelines, this is something you should start pretty much now if it’s on your to-do list. But it can continue right up until August and throughout. In August, it tends to move a lot more towards reviews, but if anything particularly news-worthy happens during your run, you should reach out to relevant journos.
PODCASTS
Podcasts also come under PR and are a great way to promote your show.
Exactly the same as above, have a think about what podcasts you’re a good fit for. What’s your hook? What audience will you relate to? And spend some time googling and asking around, and pitch yourself as a podcast guest.
Make it easy, tell ‘em what you’d like to chat about or why you’re a good fit.
REVIEW INVITES
The other big chunk of PR work is inviting reviewers to your show.
You’ll want to use that exact same press release, but your pitch email is different.
This is made a little easier by the Fringe Society sharing a press list. They’ve not done it yet this year, but keep an eye out. They share a big old list of contacts who have signed up to be on their public list.
But again, don’t BCC spam the whole list. Pitch specific publications and tell them why your show is worth reviewing. The list is split by journalists’ interests, so use that filter and save yourself a lot of time.
Check if the journalist actually does reviews before you invite them. For example, a radio journalist might not do reviews, but they might interview you in advance.
Attach your press release, but give a bit more information in the email as to the key reasons why your show is worth reviewing.
And, tell them when you are happy to have reviewers in. Unfortunately, sometimes the earlier the better. A lot of shows don’t let reviewers in until the first Friday, which means you might have a better chance of getting someone in if you let ‘em in from day 1, since you’re competing against a lesser amount of shows: it’s high risk, high reward. If your show isn’t ready, it’s not worth it but if it is, then do it!
WHAT TO DO WITH YOUR COVERAGE
Getting coverage or a review is the hard bit so, if you do get coverage, make your hard work worth it and shout about it on your socials.
Share it to stories AND dedicate a grid post to it, tagging the journalist and/or publication. It furthers their reach and shows off to your followers that you’re worth press coverage. We do this on Brass Tacks Comedy Instagram all the time. Every piece of media becomes at least a graphic if not a carousel with some highlights from the piece.
And if it’s a review, and you have posters up around Edinburgh or in your venue, then head to a cheap print shop and get stars, the publication name, and a quote and print that off, cut them up and stick them on your posters.
You can pay a wee bit more to get stuff printed directly on to sticker paper which means it stays up really well.
IS IT WORTH IT?
Like, probably?
It’s so tough because doing all of this yourself is incredibly time consuming, but paying for a PR campaign can be incredibly expensive. It’s genuinely not essential, but it’s worth a shot.
But don’t waste your time on blanket pitches without real purpose, or even on getting coverage but not doing anything with it. Yes, it’s great that someone covered your show, but it’s so so so much better if your social followers see it, and people passing your poster think “wow that’s a great review”.
It’s the old classic: someone needs to see something 7 times or whatever before they buy. Someone needs to see your face or hear about your show 7 times before they think about buying a ticket. So some social proof that you’ve been reviewed helps.
So, we’re now a couple months in to this and you’ve set your goals, budgeted accordingly, been writing the show, promoting the show and now running some basic PR.
If that doesn’t sound like what you’ve been doing, then, re-visit our previous series…
And stay tuned cause we’ve only two months left… next is SHOW TECH!
