PRESS CAMPAIGNS>>

An Edinburgh Fringe press campaign is rather like any other show press campaign, except that there are a lot more shows all competing for a journalist's attention at the same time. That said, there are more journalists to go round, so the heightened competition is compensated for a little, though don't underestimate the challenge of getting press coverage - most publications will only see a fraction of the shows on offer, and many will see the same shows - which is one of the key reasons ThreeWeeks exists - we endeavour to see as much as we possibly can, nearly everything.

Most publications use the Fringe Society's shows database (the Fringe programme, plus any shows added after the programme went to press) as a guide to what is out there, so if you're registered with the Fringe Society then you will already be on each publication's list of shows. That said you should still send them a press release because, as we said, few publications have the manpower to see anything but a fraction of the shows out there, and your press release might convince them to see your show.

A good press release should be snappy, informative and to the point. If necessary a journalist should be able to lift your press release and publish it as a preview. But at the same time all the key information should be clear so they can write their own feature about your event.

Your press release should really have an angle - a USP that will separate your event from all the other ones competing for the journalists' attention. This 'angle' should give the journalist a way of writing about your event in an interesting way - ie so they can say more than "this is another Fringe show".

A press release should also include a snappy headline, a sentence about the play or show, a sentence about the cast, a sentence about the company and, if a new play, a sentence about the playwright. Full dates / venue / cost details, box office information and a press contact should also be included.

Some publications like to receive photos with the press release, others do not. Details as to whether or not you should send photos are given on the Fringe Society media list - that being the comprehensive list of press contacts published by the Fringe Society each May - if you're registered with the Fringe Society you should have already been sent this (if not, give them a call and get one).

This list will give you editor names and contact details - and tell you whether or not they prefer to get their press releases by email or by post. You should aim to send out your press packs in early July. Once you have sent your pack you can put in a phone call or send an email to check it has arrived - but don't be surprised if you don't get any response, most journalists will receive hundreds of press packs in just a couple of weeks. To make more of an impact send an email or fax a week after you've sent in your press pack suggesting a feature idea that could be built around your show (or perhaps include yours and other shows which all cover a similar theme). Again you may not get a response, but your correspondence is more likely to stand out this way - and you might just get a journalist interested.

Most journalists book review tickets via the Fringe Society press office (or the venue press office for Pleasance, Gilded Balloon, Assembly, Underbelly, C Venue or Traverse shows) so there is no need to call publications offering press tickets. The Fringe Society or venue press office should be able to tell you when a journalist is coming, and which publication they are from. You should make sure your venue box office (or at the bigger venues the press office) has press packs to give to reviewers including a press release, programme and photo. After a reviewer has seen a show it may take some time for the review to be published - most publications get a backlog of reviews very quickly - so you will have to be patient and keep an eye on the relevant newspapers or magazines.

Phoning, emailing or faxing journalists more than once or twice isn't really an effective way of getting press interest - though if you get a very good review from one paper it might be worth emailing it to others with a note inviting them to see it. Generally once you have sent in your press release and suggested some features it is a case of being patient and keeping your fingers crossed. That said if you do some good networking and get talking to people around the Fringe you might end up talking to a journalist, or word about your show might reach an editor, so do make an effort to meet as many people as possible.

Whereas bombarding arts editors with duplicate copies of your original press release during August is counterproductive, if anything happens to your company that you think is newsworthy make sure you call, fax or email the news editors (and diary columnists) of the local daily papers - coverage in the news section can be effective too. Make sure you keep the Fringe Society press office up to date with any stories like this - they may well pass it on to another editor for you.

Expect to get frantic phone calls from publications chasing photos during August - however many photos you send out in July when a paper wants to put a photo next to your review they will probably ask for a new one. You should make sure you have some spare prints and electronic copies of your photo which you can email at short notice (keep a CD with your photos on it with you, and keep in mind where your local web cafe is, just in case someone needs a photo really urgently).

At ThreeWeeks we try to see as many shows as possible - we take the entire Fringe Society list and whether or not we manage to see a show is down to logistics rather than any artistic decision making. You should email your press release to editor@threeweeks.co.uk in July. You will generally get an email back from one of our sub-editors confirming receipt (though we can't guarantee this - we are processing over 1000 press releases in the run up to the Festival!). Our schedulers organise which reviewers see what shows when. They are unbelievably busy during August so rarely get to take or return phone calls or emails - but if you email editor@threeweeks.co.uk (or news@threeweeks.co.uk for news stories) your email will get seen by someone on the editorial team.

We try to get reviews published as quickly as we can. All reviews will appear in our eDaily and will ultimately be posted on our website. They are also likely to appear in our daily or weekly printed edition, or possibly both. Generally reviews appear in print first, and then electronically, so if it appears in the eDaily first the chances are it will not appear in a printed edition. We do try to get as many reviews as we possibly can in print, but some will only appear in the eDaily and online (it is mainly shows with short runs that miss out on print reviews).

Be warned - we do get a backlog quite quickly. We try our very best to get your reviews published as soon as we possibly can (a few days after we have seen the show), but the shear scale of the ThreeWeeks operation, which is achieved on minimal resources relying primarily on a volunteer team, means that some reviews will get delayed. We do try our best to get everything through the system as quickly as possible, and in a logical order, but please do bear with us if there are delays.

We do endeavour to ensure that every show that we see does get a review published - although there will be a few shows that we do see which never actually get reviewed (there will also be shows where we have booked a ticket but for some unforseeable reason our reviewer doesn't make it on the day). We do everything we can to ensure we see every show we book tickets for, and that every show we see gets reviewed but, inevitably, given the scale of the operation, sometimes shows are missed or reviews not published. Again, please bear with us on this - and rest assured we do everything we can to try and ensure the vast majority of shows we see do get a published review (obviously we aim for 100%!).

Publicists
Some theatre companies hire a publicist to oversee their press campaigns. This means you do not have to worry about getting your press releases out or handle press enquiries during August. Also most publicist have contacts in all the key Festival publications and as a result can be more successful in getting feature or review coverage. That said there is an element of luck in getting reviews and you could get every journalist in without a publicist, and very few in with a publicist. And if your show's no good there is nothing a publicist can do to improve your star rating.