DIY Marketing and Promo Guide

Here are the key ways you can promote your show at Victoria Fringe:

  1. Talk to other Fringe performers & share resources
  2. Marketing materials – images, posters & flyers
  3. Social media & online promo
  4. Flyering & on the ground promo
  5. The Fringe Preview
  6. Publicity & Media

If you are a visual person, the Vancouver Fringe also has developed a series of videos with advice from Fringe artists, organizers and promoters that cover some of these topics.

Talk to other Fringe performers what works for them

There is no one way to promote your show and you will find getting advice from other performers on what their key recommendations are and what to avoid will help give you  different perspectives and ideas on what you could do.

Victoria’s Mike Delamont (God is a Scottish Drag Queen) has sold out Fringe venues across North America. Here is his advice on selling your show:

-Have good strong action photos with simple plain backgrounds.

-Remember that you are selling a product that you want people to buy. So keep your press releases short and sweet. Media knows what the Fringe is so don’t waste their time telling them about the festival. Tell them the best about your show. Pitch them the story. Why should they be talking about you? What makes you stand out?

-Word of mouth will sell a show faster than any review. Fill your first houses with friends and hardworking volunteers. Those folks work hard to help out and they deserve your kindness.

Victoria company Vino Buono Productions have produced Fringe shows and stage a season of new works locally. Here’s their marketing advice from company member Victoria Simpson:

-Have a catchy company or show slogan
-Don’t just get butts in the seats, also prepare your audience for the show they are about to see, especially if you’re doing something more experimental. (Specifically when creating show descriptions).
-Make your graphics with a focused, central image, clean lines, and a bold but easy to read font and make the title of your show pop. (Photoshop had a free 30 day trial you can use or canva.com is a great resource for poster creation for those with little or no experience.)
-Let your blurb and graphics tell the story of your show. Get your Director and designer to give you some adjectives and colours that capture the soul of the show and use that as your inspiration
-Use Facebook, Instagram, and twitter; link the accounts, and keep them updated  regularly. Follow other theatre companies, use tags and hashtags (don’t go overboard though), promote other shoes and companies, do a ticket giveaway and share relevant articles about theatre to keep it active. Let people know the people and hearts behind the show!
-Don’t wait for anyone to market for you – do it yourself whether sharing on social media or conducting your own interviews with the cast and creative team!
You can also share resources with other artists to make your money go further and reach new audiences. Here is an example of a  shared flyer that two companies have created with one show on each side.
IMG_0075
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John Threlfall is a longtime Fringe-goer, reviewer & former Editor of Monday Magazine. Click here for his blog post of program guide, flyering and media tips he’s gleaned from his many years of experience.
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Marketing Materials
Images are one of THE MOST IMPORTANT marketing pieces. Click here for the images tutorial.
Poster and flyers. Here are some details on what you need to know for creating these materials for Fringe and printing/distro locally.
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Social Media & Online Promo

This is a fantastic and FREE way to spread the word about your show. Victoria has several local bloggers, tweeters and general social media inclined arts lovers. Get the buzz building around your show before you even arrive, no posters needed – share your reviews, or promo photos.

Twitter – To be included in the word of mouth of the festival and to maximize your views and get retweeted, be sure to include the hashtag #yyjfringe and you can tweet directly to us @IntrepidTheatre (tweets by Sean, Marketing & Development). The best way to build a following and get a good buzz happening is to make your tweets engaging (ask a specific question – Quentin Tarantino themed show? Ask what the favorite Tarantino heroine is? Use the hashtag #tarantino to increase your exposure), use photos and links to reviews or press or YouTube videos. Be sure that it is your voice and reflects on your own show and your marketable brand.

Facebook – Create an event or page or group. Update it often. Add pictures of your travels across the country, post your reviews, be engaging, be creative (same as above). Did your #tarantino get you a tweet back from Quentin Tarantino himself? Great – post about it. Share this with other performers, friends, and social media activists – stay current and active. Don’t focus on just your show either, post about other great shows you saw, post about the great time you had at The Fringe Preview or the new friends you made. When titling your Facebook event, be sure to include Victoria Fringe in part of the title, for example “Sammie & Sean‘s Great Gin Adventure at the Victoria Fringe 2019″, so that when audiences are searching on Facebook, your event pops up. One way to make sure your posts get seen by more people is to do some sponsored or paid Facebook posts. A small spend will get you a long way. Click here for a tutorial on how to boost a facebook post.

Instagram – Follow Intrepid Theatre @IntrepidTheatre and hashtag #yyjfringe, so we can like and follow along or repost you. Instagram is great for images, videos and fun pieces like boomerang (short repetitive videos) or behind the scenes sneak peaks during tech, in line-ups or at the Fringe Club.

 

YouTube – Make a promo video, or a teaser or a trailer for your show. Include it in your other social media, put it in your electronic press kit, share it on twitter. Make an engaging, professional quality concise summary or teaser of your show that people will want to watch and share. Include your show info: festivals, dates, venues etc.

Blog – Tie it all together and share your entire Fringe experience. Sometimes, people are tired of reading reviews and hearing how many stars you got, be a human, make a connection. Write about your travels across the country, all the friends you met, the best fish n chips in the city, etc. Don’t forget the show, but approach it from a different angle – what was creating the show like, how did it feel to play to a sold out house, how is each city different?

Graphics – good social media posts are image driven. Use canva.com to create customizable social media sized images for posts. It’s free and you don’t need to have lots of graphic design skills to use it. You can also use canva.com to create flyers or posters if you aren’t a photoshop wiz.

Publicity & Media

The media landscape has significantly thinned out in Victoria, and as a small city the remaining journalists are overwhelmed with workload. It is worth creating a press kit or simple press release and sending out to media, but its worth being strategic in terms of how much time you spend on media coverage.

Make an “electronic press kit”—a website where you have posted all of your press kit ingredients—and then you can send your web link to the media inviting them to have a look (click here for an example). You can also create a pdf version with downloadable image links if you prefer (some artists use google drive or dropbox for image downloads). We put your web links in the program guide and website. Your press kits contains information about your show that you will send out to the media. If it grabs them, they may want to give your show additional preview coverage or interview you before the festival starts.

Your press kit can be as simple as a one-page press release and a good photo. You can also include company bios, reviews of your work, and even additional story ideas—“hooks” about your show or company that a reporter might be interested in covering (i.e. this is your 20th Fringe tour, or small children designed your costumes, or people have been protesting about your show across the country).

Press Release Pointers

How to write an exciting and original press release:

➢ USE A HOOK to catch the media’s attention. What makes your show special or different from the others? Consider what makes it unique—the media want to highlight the smallest/largest/oldest/most unusual performers and productions at the Fringe.

➢ YOUR FIRST PARAGRAPH should include the ‘must know’ points—a vibrant and exciting ‘hook’ and an overview of the who, what, when, where, and why of your show.

➢ KEEP IT SHORT – a press release needs to be clear and to the point (like a news article). Use short sentences and short paragraphs. Make it no more than one 8.5×11 page. Include in the body of the release a one-paragraph synopsis of the plot of your show or what it is about, and a short paragraph with biographical information on the key performers or team members. Mention high-profile events or productions they have done in the past, any awards won, etc.

➢ BE SELECTIVE – only include pertinent, attention-grabbing detail. Remember journalists read countless press releases every day and won’t necessarily have time to read every single word, so are likely to scan it for something that jumps out.

➢ BE NEWSWORTHY – think about newsworthy links to current affairs/events for your production. Does your show include an actor who was in a TV show, film, or high profile theatre production? Is the director an asylum seeker from Sudan, an arctic explorer, or an ex-con? Did the script-writer win any awards?

➢ REVIEWS – if you’ve been touring and have rave reviews, you can send copies or “excerpt” the best lines (crediting the source) on a single separate page, or include one or two of the best lines in the body of your press release.

➢ PROOF your press release for spelling and grammatical errors, then get someone else to check it too, just to be sure! Mistakes on a release will make you look unprofessional.

➢ VITAL STATS – include the name of your show, company, where you are from, the media contact person for your show and their phone number/email, where to get tickets (phone, website details)…

Here is an example of a sample press release from a previous Fringe show. the_adhd_project_victoria_media_release

Contacting the Media

Contact, but don’t pester, these media-types, by sending them your press kit. There are notes about how they prefer to be contacted and what is interesting to them. If we haven’t provided their phone #, it’s because they don’t want you to call (same with email) – our small number of arts reporters just get overwhelmed with the volume of shows.

A good time to approach most of them with your press kit is around about 4-6 weeks before your show. Earlier and your stuff will be buried under a pile, later and you’ll miss out.

For specialty publications (towards the bottom of the list, like those for kids and seniors), their deadlines are far in advance (around 2-4 months), and they’ll only consider you if your show has a specific appeal for their audience.

Advice from a Veteran Fringe performer

Jonno Katz (The Accident, 2009) performed at Canadian Fringe Festivals for many years. Here is his advice on what works from experience for Fringe publicity in Victoria:

“Send the press releases and press packs 1 month before the festival. Don’t hassle them but let them know who you are. Pitch them story ideas. What would their readership/viewership find interesting? Are you dyslexic? Then you overcame your dyslexia by being an actor or a writer or a comedian and it ended up informing your style so that your limitation ended up helping you, or something like that. The press are looking for stories. Are there other companies who could be part of a feature article? The press often look for “umbrella” stories: Women Comedians doing the Fringe, Physical Comedy at the Fringe, Dramatic Dance (Why is it so popular?). Basically try and do the Press’s work for them. Although I’ve never done this, stunts can get you publicity. Your show is about street kids so have your company all sleep on the streets one night. Call up the press and get them to come down and take pictures of it. Your show is about an old age home so invite an old age home to one of your shows and get the press there too.”

MEDIA LIST

Longlead (4-6+ months)
Intrepid handles all long-lead media pitches for our festivals, programming and series.

Shortlead (4-8 weeks)

Island Tides (for Gulf Island artists)
news@islandtides.com

James Bay Beacon
jbbeacon@shaw.ca

Oak Bay/Saanich/Victoria News
editor@vicnews.com
NOTES: send press kits by email, high res colour photos good, send anytime late July onwards. Do not follow-up. Focuses on local performers, but also takes interest in some international performers.

Nexus Magazine
Camosun College
editor@nexusnewspaper.com
NOTES: send press kits by email, high res colour photos good, send anytime late July onwards.

The Martlet
University of Victoria
edit@martlet.ca

Times Colonist
Mike Devlin – Arts reporter
MDevlin@Timescolonist.com

NOTE: Send Mike your press kit/release, but do not follow up. He is the only full time arts reporter at the TC.

TV/Radio

CTV
Adam Sawatsky – arts reporter
adam.sawatsky@bellmedia.ca
NOTE: press kits/press release by email; email is best for follow-up and general contact. If you have broadcast quality video of your show, send CD or link. All pre-record – contact 2 weeks out.

CFUV
Kate Sage, Program Director: programming@cfuv.ca
NOTE: Check out their on-air programs there might be one that’s a good fit for your show, do some research. Very supportive of Fringe.

CBC Radio
General submissions: victoria@cbc.ca
NOTE: email best for information/press releases; prefers audio clips; follow-up ok, email is best, send 1st or 2nd week of August, they do a series of PSA ‘spots’ during the Fringe featuring excerpts from shows. Ask when you check in at site office about the PSA spots and how to call in to do this (spots are limited).

Online

CVV Magazine
Online arts and entertainment magazine
Leanne Allen
leanne.allen@cvvmagazine.com

Showbill.ca
Online theatre reviews and previews
No contact provided

Quick Links for Promoting Your Event

Free online events listings in and around Victoria. Most newspapers and radio stations do free events listings. Try and get your show listed; it is also worth sending a photo with your show info to all print media.

This list is not exhaustive, so have a browse and find a niche market for your show and there may be a corresponding event listing, community calendar or media contact. Think gay/lesbian/queer content, seniors, medical profession, film lovers…