The Edinburgh Fringe Festival is the world's largest arts festival and is held in Edinburgh, Scotland. The festival is a month-long programme of theatre, comedy, dance, music and visual art.

Investing both time and money in your marketing campaign will help pay dividends at the Fringe. Make sure that your campaign has a clear message. Use the same fonts, style, images throughout your campaign as this will help audiences remember your show. Every show is unique and so is every marketing campaign - what works for one show might not be appropriate for another. This guide contains some suggestions on where you might want to target your marketing and what options are available.

Top Tips

Have a marketing budget

Plan your campaign before the Fringe begins. Decide on where your money will be spent, agree a flyering rota,           get your artwork approved etc.

Be flexible during the Fringe. If you find something isn’t working have a Plan B.

Remember there are 4000+ shows at the Fringe. It can be hard to stand out from the crowd. 

Consider what’s unique about your show and how to get that message across

Handing out Flyers

Handing out Fringe Flyer Printing is a central part of your promotion at the Fringe, but can also be demanding and stressful. You should treat flyering with the same level of commitment as you treat your show and expect to flyer for a minimum of a couple of hours a day. Create a schedule with your company to divide responsibilities equally and make sure part of the schedule involves flyering directly before your show. Printers for flyers and posters can be displayed on the Royal Mile, or in local shops & businesses (with the owner’s permission). You may distribute flyers for your shows by handing them out to audience members in the venues. A stock of flyers can be left at the venue you are showing at as well.

Fringe Posters and Fringe Banners

Edinburgh Printers offer a range of printing services for both large and small print runs. They can print your Edinburgh Fringe Posters in a huge A1 size to get your event noticed. You can have a poster inside the venue you are showing at to advertise your show when others have been see as well as have these in the streets. These are a great way to show off your show to passersby, make sure you have the perfect eye-catching Fringe Graphic design.

Top Tips

Where a costume – it has plenty of visual appeal.

Don’t just hand flyers to people. Have a one-on-one conversation with someone who is passionate about their show will sell more tickets. Volume isn’t the key, conversion rate is.

Work together with other shows, flyer queues and seats for shows similar to yours and let them do the same

Locations that we recommend flyering are Royal Mile (although be aware that everyone does this), Half-Price Hut (especially if you’re on sale in the Half Price Hut) and Outside your own venue (particularly in the hour before your show)

Advert

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe brochure is distributed in July around both Edinburgh and the UK with close to 200,000 copies printed each year. It should be high on your list of possible options for advertising at the Fringe. We would generally recommend an advert placed in your section (i.e. if your show is in the theatre section, place your advert in the theatre section).

Social Media

Promote, Promote, Promote, social media is a free and easy way to promote your show using a smaller version of your poster or flyer on your post. Get promoting in groups, your personal and business pages, get your show out there and all it takes is your own time. A Fringe Selfie for on the day is a great way to get people talking and sharing your event.

Extras

Why not stand out from the crowd by handing out freebies it could be as simple as a Fringe Stickers, Fringe Keyrings with your show details, Fringe Business Cards with a miniature version of your flyers and other Fringe Promotional Items.

We have some great Budget Fringe Packages and Fringe Print Deals available or you can create your own.