Reflections on Marketing from the Edinburgh Fringe

 

The beginning of August brings one of my favourite times of the year – the start of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the world’s largest performing arts festival with over 3,000 different shows taking place throughout the month. 

     As you can imagine, it’s busy, noisy, and often crazy, and Edinburgh locals are firmly divided into those who love the Fringe and those who hate it. I love it! After being deprived of live theatre for eighteen months during the pandemic, I try to take every opportunity, and this month provides an amazing selection along with lots of creative inspiration. 

     As I browsed the Fringe brochure, it also struck me that there is a lot it can teach us about marketing which is also applicable to writing. 

     Make it stand out – With over 3,000 shows, it’s easy to get lost in the crowd. People often make a quick decision about what to see based on the publicity. In the same way, despite being told that we shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, the reality is that most people do, at least to some extent, so we need something distinctive to encourage people to choose our book over the many others available. 

     Titles matter – A key way to make something stand out is its title. In the last couple of days I’ve attended the previews of two shows which I was almost entirely drawn to because of their intriguing titles. Who wouldn’t be drawn to shows entitled, “Lady Macbeth Played Wing Defence” or “Tomatoes Tried to Kill Me, but Banjos Save my Life”? 

     Describe it accurately – One of my most disappointing experiences of the Fringe was a production of “Cinderella” a few years ago. It was listed in the brochure under children’s shows, and several families turned up with small children dressed as Disney princesses, only to find it was the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, which is not really geared to small children. It was an uncomfortable 90 minutes surrounded by fidgety Disney princesses and their frustrated parents. All of this could have been avoided if the blurb had been more accurate. 

     Show your passion – I always love the passion of the performers at the Fringe. They really care about their show and think it is the best. As you walk the streets, you are bombarded by people handing out flyers, trying to invite you to their shows, and their passion is infectious, making me wish I could accept all their invitations. As writers we sometimes find promotion difficult, but the Fringe performers teach me that if you show you care, others will care too. 

     Word of mouth is the most effective way – No matter how well you do with the title, the blurb and the marketing, the best method of promotion for actually getting your work to those who will appreciate it is personal recommendations. I’ve heard several friends say that they don’t engage with the Fringe because they feel overwhelmed by the number of shows. One of my favourite things to do is to invite them to a show I know they will love. 

     On that note, just in case any of you happen to be in Edinburgh this month, I’ll leave you with a recommendation for the aforementioned “Tomatoes Tried to Kill Me but Banjos Saved my Life”. One review describes it as “storytelling at its best” and I’d agree. It is essentially a memoir in the form of a live performance, and it is a masterclass in how to structure a story and tell it in a compelling way.

Lesley Crawford blogs at Life In The Spacious Place and contributes regularly at Gracefully Truthful. She has written One Big Story, a Bible curriculum for school groups and contributed to various anthologies, including the ACW anthology, "Merry Christmas, Everyone" and "The Jesse Tree Anthology".