by Julie Kimelman
Today we went to a workshop at Fringe Central titled How to Sell Your Show. The four panelists were a wealth of knowledge about how to appropriately utilize social media and flyers for advertising, creating and maintaining a company and show image, networking, and contacting the media for reviews. The panel emphasized the importance of a strong pitch, suggesting that the most successful pitches are vivid, yet to the point and under one minute long.
The moderator urged everyone to avoid sending blanket emails, and instead send fewer personalized emails to specific agencies that would more likely be interested in covering the show. It is essential that the first paragraph of any email include the venue, time, and dates of the show, as well as something that will catch the potential reviewer’s attention. Though this seemed obvious to many of us because of previous marketing classes, an interesting point that I had not thought about was to be wary of attaching photos because many journalists are instructed to not open attachments to avoid viruses.
During our class discussion after the workshop we agreed that one of our biggest takeaways from the workshop was the advice of a man not affiliated with any of the shows, but instead attending just to learn. He suggested that shows should always hand out flyers as people are leaving the show to increase the possibility that the person will tell a friend. When attending a festival with so many hundreds of shows per day, it is easy for someone to remember that he or she really liked something about a certain performance but forget the name of the show. As the man advised, if the audience leaves with a flyer they are more likely to pass on the information!
Today we went to a workshop at Fringe Central titled How to Sell Your Show. The four panelists were a wealth of knowledge about how to appropriately utilize social media and flyers for advertising, creating and maintaining a company and show image, networking, and contacting the media for reviews. The panel emphasized the importance of a strong pitch, suggesting that the most successful pitches are vivid, yet to the point and under one minute long.
The moderator urged everyone to avoid sending blanket emails, and instead send fewer personalized emails to specific agencies that would more likely be interested in covering the show. It is essential that the first paragraph of any email include the venue, time, and dates of the show, as well as something that will catch the potential reviewer’s attention. Though this seemed obvious to many of us because of previous marketing classes, an interesting point that I had not thought about was to be wary of attaching photos because many journalists are instructed to not open attachments to avoid viruses.
During our class discussion after the workshop we agreed that one of our biggest takeaways from the workshop was the advice of a man not affiliated with any of the shows, but instead attending just to learn. He suggested that shows should always hand out flyers as people are leaving the show to increase the possibility that the person will tell a friend. When attending a festival with so many hundreds of shows per day, it is easy for someone to remember that he or she really liked something about a certain performance but forget the name of the show. As the man advised, if the audience leaves with a flyer they are more likely to pass on the information!
RSS Feed
