Below we set out some suggestions and requirements for publicising a show at the Underbelly venues. Please note that whilst some is merely good advice to all companies at the Fringe, we do have some specific requirements that apply to companies performing at our venue. Please read this page carefully early on so that you can be fully prepared.
Underbelly publicity guidelines
We have specific guidelines as to what we expect from all the companies performing at the Underbelly venues. Please read these carefully if you are performing at an Underbelly venue during the Edinburgh Festival.
Before the Festival
Photo, image and press release
Even the best shows which sell themselves require a great deal of hard graft to ensure that the 500,000 people who visit the Fringe know how good they are. The first three things you should do are:
Write your programme copy. Design your show image and/or take publicity photos. Prepare a press release.
Look at the images for each show in 2008 and work out what sort of photo/image will attract interest. If you are using an image for the brochure, then you may also want some photos in case the press want them to accompany a review.
Venue Brochure
In 2008, for the first time, the four companies: Assembly, Gilded Balloon, Pleasance and Underbelly joined forces to produce a joint brochure. Over 400,000 copies were produced and it provided the festival goer with the only full colour brochure, listed by time, with an illustration for each show.
The brochure became a bible for both the serious fringe-goer and the comedy-junkie alike, forming ‘2 brochures in one’.The image of four coloured boots soon became a fixture in everyone’s hands.
The good news is... we’re doing it again! It’s another bumper issue of all things fringe at Assembly, Gilded Balloon, Pleasance and Underbelly on one side. The Edinburgh Comedy Festival which features comedy shows at all fringe venues, not necessarily the ones listed above, shall form the other side.
Distributed in cafés, bars, theatres, airports, shopping centers, nationally by post, and via our media partner (This was The Scotsman in 2008), it will also be available as an online document for customers to peruse.
Because of the strict copy deadlines for inclusion in this brochure, companies must send us the required text and image as set out in the guidelines by the date given to you. To avoid the risk of being excluded, please think about your publicity early on in the process and ensure that you have the relevant photo or graphic ready in plenty of time.
Posters and fliers
In the "good old days" before desktop publishing and commercialisation, posters were a luxury and fliers were often photocopied. Unfortunately these days, taking such an approach will result in your show being lost in a sea of more colourful designed fliers and posters (unless of course your photocopied fliers are an ironic statement about the commercialisation of the Fringe!). Posters are useful for use in and around the venue and also on the poster sites supplied on the Royal Mile. Be warned fly-posting is illegal and will be prosecuted.
All posters/fliers and any adverts should include our logo and the correct venue number. You must comply with the usage guidelines on the logo download page.
Box Office Information
All publicity should include the Box Office Phone number and web address. These are on the logos but should be clearly placed elsewhere on your print publicity.
Our New Box Office Number is; 0844 545 8252
Web Address; www.underbelly.co.uk
Venue Numbers
Our venue numbers are as follows. These are not essential but handy to have on all your publicity material as they correlate with the Fringe Guide.
Smirnoff Underbelly, 56 Cowgate: Venue 61
(entrances on Cowgate and Victoria Street)
Pasture: Bristo Square: Venue 300
Underbelly's Hullabaloo: George Square Gardens: Venue 171
Underbelly logos for print & web
We have Underbelly logos available for download for all our venues in a variety of formats, in both positive and negative, full colour and black and white. You MUST comply with our usage guidelines or your publicity materials will NOT be approved.
Printers for Fringe - we recommend Big Byte
We have worked with Big Byte regularly over the past few years and can highly recommend them as our nominated print supplier. We use them ourselves for all of our in-house printing. They take the hastle factor out of the whole printing process and they don't miss deadlines. The print quality is excellent and their system is totally geared to Fringe shows including the following FREE inclusive of print prices:
FREE delivery to EAE if you are using them for publicity distribution. As the only official EAE recommended print supplier they also integrate seamlessly with their distribution system making life much easier for you.
FREE delivery of your required print quota to Underbelly.
FREE storage of any balance if print until you’re arrival in Edinburgh.
Big Byte are Edinburgh based working in the arts sector all year round, and have many years of experience printing for the Edinburgh Fringe. We are not in any way saying that you have to go with Big Byte but we think you will be really glad you did if you do! Please don’t hesitate to contact them even if it’s only for advice on your printing options on the contact details below.
T: 0131 516 4520 E: fringe@bigbyteproduction.com
W: www.bigbyteproduction.com/fringe
Website
The same copy you supply for the venue brochure will be used on our website. Inevitably with the number of shows, some small errors may creep in to the website programme and/or information may change from when originally supplied, so please do let us know if any of your show details are incorrect or need updating. Email marina@underbelly.co.uk with any corrections.
You can help yourself and all performers at Underbelly generally by placing as many links as possible on your website and any other website publicising your show to the Underbelly website. This will drive more ticket buyers to our site where you pay a lower ticket commission on ticket sales (to that of the Fringe Office) and also improves our website's rankings with the search engines.
During the Festival
During the Festival you need to be shameless publicists. Simply walking around town or the Fringe press events in costume will just not cut it. Hand out fliers, as many as you can, but where possible engage people in conversation.
Try and come up with a newsworthy angle. A good review can do fantastic things for a show but remember, with a review, you are subject slightly to pot luck as to whether the reviewer liked your show, even if you think it is the best thing since sliced bread. A feature or news item (a) usually gets more prominence in the paper and (b) will probably only say good things about you. Many companies pin all their hopes on a review only to be disappointed when it takes a week to come out and even more disappointed when it then gives them a neutral 3 stars.
The press often look for themes that appear across the Fringe and so if your show is particularly topical, then that is an angle to exploit. Even if you are not topical, see if there are other shows on the same theme and suggest this theme to journalists as something they may want to pick up on.
Reviewers should be supplied with a pack containing your press release and any other information you can supply them with such as photos, fliers and more detailed information on the production. Our publicity staff can help you put these together and will supply them to journalists who identify themselves to the press office.
What Underbelly does to help
The publicity and marketing team
Our dedicated marketing staff will try to get as much publicity for the shows in our venue as we can, but obviously we cannot promise coverage for all 150 shows. In the past we have been able to arrange interviews in the newspapers with performers and showcase slots in the Fringe press events. The papers are always looking for material, so any good gossip or (genuinely) funny stories have a good chance of getting a mention.
We have a dedicated press and marketing team headed by our Press and Marketing Managers. Their job is to sell the Underbelly and all the shows performing there. They can give you advice on how to market your show, they can help you secure press coverage of any good stories that you may have.
Finally they will deal with all press queries and provide any information requested about shows or if they do not have the information, contact you to arrange for you to provide the information.
You can contact our head of Press Sarah Harries on sarahharries@underbelly.co.uk our Co-Head of Press Fraser Smith on fraser@hothouse-publicity.com and Marketing Manager Stephen Makin on stephen@underbelly.co.uk .
The street team
Underbelly employs a street team to help you distribute fliers and promote your show. If you wish to make use of this facility, we will pass on the relevant cost to you. The use of this team is subject to availability in 2009.
Reviewers
We will collect information about any reviewers who attend your show organized through our press office. We will issue press packs if we can and pass on information to companies.
Reviews
We check the papers every day for reviews of shows and then copy the reviews and paste them up around the venue and on the review boards outside each entrance to the venue. If companies are aware of any reviews then they should tell the press office as it is possible that we may miss some reviews, especially if they are in more obscure publications.
We do also try to copy reviews from online sources. However, because some review sites do not allow us to search reviews by venue, we cannot easily check these sources regularly and companies should remain responsible for this and let the press office know if they have seen a review online to make sure we are aware of it.
We will attempt to place the full text of all four and five star reviews onto our website, time permitting and also record the star ratings of all reviews received by each show. We can only do this where the text is available online as we cannot re-type printed reviews. However, many of the major publications have online versions.
