How to Publicise Your Edinburgh Fringe Show

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is a unique and popular cultural event that only occurs once a year. But with so many other directors, producers, actors, dancers and other artists in attendance, how do you make sure that your show is noticed?

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is a very colourful and riotous event that's held in the city of Edinburgh, Scotland for three weeks every August. A cultural highlight since it was first unveiled in the late 1940s, this festival has become well known for launching the careers of a number of theatre companies, directors and actors, but for every show that is hailed as a critical and a financial success, there will be dozens of productions that just don't hit the dizzying heights of stardom that they hope to achieve. However, while it can be hard to get your work noticed at the Fringe, this doesn't mean that it's impossible to do, so here is a very brief guide to making your show as popular as possible this August.

While the Edinburgh Fringe only happens once a year, a lot of work goes on behind the scenes to ensure that everything runs smoothly. This process takes all year, and so starting some work early is one of the best things that you can do in order to ensure that your production does well. For a start, make sure that your get your application, and all relevant forms are submitted before the deadline, make sure you're aware of what facilities your venue has, and most importantly, the familiarise yourself with the location of your venue. This will not only ensure that you find it in August, but will also ensure that you will know what kind of area it's on, and how this will affect your ticket sales, ie, if you're in the centre of town the venue should be quite busy, but if you're on the outskirts it might be quieter. Knowing where you will be in relation to the general public and busy areas will help you concentrate your marketing efforts later on.

One thing to remember is that you can never have too many flyers or posters, as running out of these tools of marketing is worse than having too many left over at the very end. Try to make your posters stand out – let them show something unique about your show, use a good photographer, or a good camera if possible, and make sure all the details on the posters and flyers, such as venue, price, etc, is correct. Get everyone in the company involved in flyering, everyone from the actors to the tech crew so that they can reach the most people possible. When it comes to putting up posters, put them in the designated areas, or they will get torn down, also try to be respectful with poster space, as covering up someone else's poster is not only rude, it's mean.

If you can, try to see if you can invest in getting a PR company to help you publicise your show, this is a task that you need to arrange several months in advance, so don't just arrive in Edinburgh on the 1st of August and assume that you'll be able to find a Scottish PR agency to help you. Start searching for public relations companies in advance by searching for phrases like public relations Scotlandor Edinburgh in Google. If you'd like to use a PR company closer to you, then go ahead, but just make sure that you go for one that specialises in performance-related clients and has experience of working for a company during the Fringe.

Remember, the Edinburgh Fringe is a world-renowned cultural event, so just make sure that you are ready for whatever this wonderful festival has to throw at you.