Is publicity:
A. Getting your name in the papers?
B. Getting your face on TV?
C. Getting your name on everyone’s lips?
D. Getting butts in the seats?
The answers are:
A. Maybe
B. Perhaps
C. Possibly
D. Most certainly, 100%, absolutely yes!
Publicity is a means to an end, not an end in itself. In publicity, as in everything else, effort doesn’t matter — it’s results that count.
The goal of your publicity campaign is not just to reach people. It’s to reach people who are actually going to come to your show.
You could do a million things to promote your show, from hiring the Goodyear blimp to getting your back tattooed with show times and ticket prices.
But you can’t do everything. You don’t have the time or the money to do everything you could do for publicity. So what you need to do is to figure out what you CAN do — and out of that, select what efforts are going to produce the most results.
But don’t put all your eggs in one basket. No one publicity medium is going to reach all the people you want to reach.
You want to use a mix of different media, but you also want to budget your time and money carefully, and make sure that your efforts get results.
This extremely little guide is going to give you a few pointers on what publicity tools you can use and some advice from the Rogue Promo team on how you can most effectively use them.
(Some of you are going to find this advice extremely elementary. Mallory Moad, for example, could teach us all about effective marketing. But if you’re new to promotional work, or you want to go beyond your current promotional efforts, I hope you will find this pamphlet helpful.)
That’s Mister Rogue Promo Guy, buddy. The Rogue Promo team publicizes the Rogue Festival as a whole. Our job is to make sure people know that the Festival is happening and get them excited about going to the Festival and seeing shows — all the shows.
Out of necessity and fairness, the Rogue Promo Team has to promote all the shows in the Festival equally.
But who’s going to make sure people come to see your show? Keep in mind, thousands of people come to the Rogue, and they have about 50 or more shows to choose from. So you can’t expect that you’re going to get large audiences just because you’re in the Rogue Festival.
You want to get your fair share of the total Rogue audience, and that’s going to take a publicity campaign of your own to promote your particular show.
I encourage you to think, just a little bit, of this being a competition between you and other Rogue participants. Try to outdo the other guys.
At other festivals, I’ve seen a competitive spirit among the performers make promotional work and the entire festival more fun, both for performers and the audience.
Also, an aggressive promotional campaign from individual performers helps the Rogue Festival as a whole. The people you bring in to see your show are going to want to see other shows. The more you promote your show, the more you’re helping everyone in the Rogue Festival.
That being said, we are fully committed to promoting your show just as heavily as every other show. The best way you can make sure that your show gets the full benefit of the Rogue’s promotional efforts is to make sure that you send us all your promo material before the promo deadline, December 17, 2005.
You’re going to need some organization, a clear message, and media in which to deliver that message.
· First, designate a member of your company to be your official PR spokesperson. (If you’re a one-person act, your choice is easy.)
There are two reasons why your company should have a designated PR spokesperson whom everyone in your company knows is responsible for coordinating your marketing efforts.
What are the qualifications to be a PR spokesperson? You should be comfortable talking to people. You should be able to give an instant description of your show in 25 words or less at any moment. You should be reachable by phone during business hours. Organizational skills, computer skills, graphic design talent and being able to write, help, too.
If this sounds like a job, it is. It takes a lot of work to launch even a modest marketing campaign, but the more you apply yourself to it, the bigger your results.
Make sure your media spokesperson’s contact info is on all your promotional material. Your media spokesperson’s name, phone number, email address, plus your company’s web URL, should be on every item of material you send to the media.
Even handbills, fliers and posters should have a contact phone number and email address. It is especially important to put your URL on all your posters and handbills.
Your media spokesperson should be diligent to respond to all calls, emails and requests for information. Editors, reporters and even members of the public are not going to spend much time on you, so if you get a call, be there and be ready.
· Second, create a clear CORE MESSAGE about what your show is about, what kind of people would like to see it, and why they should go to see it.
The Core Message is a resource you can use to create all kinds of promotional material — press releases, posters, handbills, emails, your website, etc. It’s the foundation for your show description in the Rogue Map — which is probably the most potent PR weapon you have. Your Core Message will also give you talking points when speaking to reporters, making appearances on the radio, or even talking to people you meet on the street.
Don’t be vague about your Core Message. Craft it out, write it down on paper, and rewrite it until it’s short, to the point, and compelling.
I’m not going to tell you what your Core Message should say. When you conceived of your show, you knew what you wanted to say, or what kind of feelings or thoughts you want the audience to experience. You know what your show is about and what it means to you — and that’s what your promo message should communicate.
Don’t be afraid to communicate your passion about your work, or how much fun you have on stage. The individuality of your show and your performance are very compelling marketing copy. You have a personality for a reason, so use it.
But when you’re crafting your message, always keep your audience in mind. What makes other people care about you and what you’re doing? Why would someone who doesn’t know you at all be interested? What kind of audience do you already have, and how can you reach people of the same sort?
· Get some photos to promote your show.
This is very important. An eye-catching photo is going to make your show stand out and be recognized everywhere: in the Rogue Map, on your posters and handbills, even — if you’ve got the budget for it —T-shirts and other vendorware.
Newspapers and magazines love free artwork, and a press release with a photo is much more likely to get published than one without.
Collect photos from past performances, or just go ahead and stage some promotional shots.
· Get the details right.
Get all your facts straight about who, where, when, and how much. Make sure you’re right about your show times, show dates, the address of your venue, and your ticket prices.
This may seem elementary, but people do screw up on this stuff. When I did a Rogue show in 2001, I sent out I don’t know how many posters with the wrong dates.
DO NOT use the venue phone number on any of your promotional material. The people who work at the venues aren’t with the Rogue Festival, and it’s not their job to answer questions about your show.
Once you’ve got all your information together, you’ve got material that you can communicate in any format you want. What format and media will work best for your show depends on where your audience is. Who comes to your shows? What media do they see and hear? What’s the most effective way of reaching them? It’s best to focus your efforts on reaching your core audience — the people who already attend your shows — and people similar to them.
The Rogue Map is the official program of the Rogue Performance Festival, and for most Rogue audience members, it’s the Rogue publicity item they’ll see the most of. With the Rogue Map, you can attract new audience members who haven’t heard of you before, but will be interested in your work.
An eye-catching photo and a lively description in the Rogue Map will absolutely do the most to promote your show. When you’re composing your official description of your show, think long and hard about how you can present your company as something fun and worth seeing.
The Rogue Map is where you can make the best use of your carefully constructed Core Message.
· For Mainstage Participants: Your show description must be 100 words or less.
· For Café and Gallery Participants: Your show description must be 50 words or less.
· Photos: Must be 300 dpi.
SEND YOUR ROGUE MAP MATERIALS VIA EMAIL TO graphics@roguefestival.com BY OR BEFORE DECEMBER 17, 2005
BIG TIP: DON’T BE OBSCURE OR ARTSY. BE CLEAR. Even if you have a profoundly serious statement to make with your art, people are going to be more attracted to your show if you’re clear about what that statement is. If you’re promoting a comedy, be funny. If you’re promoting a tragedy, be serious and intense. If you’re promoting one of those indescribable thought-provoking art experience thingies, be genuinely thought provoking.
ABOVE ALL, FOCUS ON WHAT MAKES YOUR SHOW UNIQUE
PHOTOS are especially important for the Rogue Map. Nothing catches the eye on the printed page like a good photo — especially one that tells a story. Go back to your Core Message, and consider what kind of imagery will express that Core Message.
IT IS A BIG MISTAKE TO NOT SUBMIT A PHOTO WITH YOUR ROGUE MAP MATERIAL. A GOOD PHOTO IS ESSENTIAL.
The second most effective marketing tool you have is your personal contacts. You talk to dozens of people a day, and those people in turn talk to dozens of people, and eventually news about your show will eventually reach Kevin Bacon — and along the way, you’ll hit a lot of the people you want to reach. After all, Fresno’s really just a big small town. Make Fresno work for you.
Word of mouth is more convincing than just about any “official” communications medium. People respect the opinion of people they know far more than disembodied radio and TV voices. Professional marketing companies spend millions to create fake “viral” marketing campaigns — you can create the real thing just by hanging out at the coffee shop. Get the people you know excited about your show and their interest will spread.
A lot of this is obvious — the key is to be creative in using whatever resources you have to reach more people. In publicity, as in everything else, success depends more on how much energy you exert than how clever you are.
The Rogue Festival itself is one of your best publicity opportunities. Think about it — your goal is to reach people who want to see shows, right? Well, while the Rogue Festival is going on, thousands of members of your target demographic are walking the streets, just waiting to be persuaded to see your show.
DON’T shut down your promotional efforts when the Festival starts — in fact, it’s during the Festival that you should work your hardest.
Your posters and handbills can use a lot of the material you collected to write your Core Message and Rogue Map entry.
You can greatly increase your word-of mouth reach by making appearances at local Open Mic nights. Do a small snippet of your show. Get people hungry for more. Loudly announce when you’ll be appearing at the Rogue Festival.
It’s never been easier to get your own website. So get one, now. A website or blog will immediately get your message out to the masses — especially if you put your URL on all your handbills that you’re handing out to everybody you see.
Check out www.myspace.com, www.blogger.com and other blogging personal home page sites to start your own website. It’s free and simple.
If you learn how to get fancy with personal websites and blogs, you can do a lot more than just pictures and text. You can also include sound files, video clips, MP3 downloads — immersing people in what your show is really like.
You may already have an email list of your friends and fans. If not, start building one today. A personal email to everybody who will be interested in seeing your show can be very effective.
I would suggest sending an initial email announcing your show about a week before the Rogue Festival begins, and follow it up with some reminder emails the day before and the day of your shows.
Don’t go nuts with the email — you don’t want your audience to think of you as a spammer.
How to Write a Press Release
Rule #1 for press releases is make it short. Rule #2 is make it interesting. Rule #3 is make it complete.
Your press release shouldn’t be more than one page, and it should be interesting from the very first sentence. Editors are deluged with PR, and they usually make a decision about whether to read a press release or throw it away within 5 seconds.
Start off with the most interesting thing about you or your show: “They said Shakespeare couldn’t be performed by trained cats, but ...” or “I stole $476,012.59 from a bank, and got away with it. I’ll be telling my story at ...”
But a press release shouldn’t be a puff piece. Your goal is to get your press release published as you wrote it, so it should look like a real news story: write in clear, conventional English, make your most important points first, and include as much information as possible and no more.
Your press release is much more likely to get printed if it can run without being edited. Editors are lazy (I know — I used to be one — and I’m still lazy) and they will throw away your release sooner than rewrite it.
You must include all info about show times, venue locations, and ticket prices. Editors love press releases that tell them everything they need to know. Remember, they’re lazy.
You must include your contact info: your spokesperson’s name, phone number, and email address. If you hit the jackpot, someone will call you and actually want to interview you and give you some coverage. They can’t do that without contact info, so make sure it’s there.
· You can find several guides to how to format a press release on the web. Don’t get too hung up on the formalities … just make sure your press release looks professional and is brief.
· Give your press release a headline, just like a news story. Headlines should be short, compelling, informative and eye-catching. Headlines are hard to write. The best headline-writing advice I’ve read is this — write 100 headlines, and then pick the best one.
· Date your press release.
· Indicate when your press release can be published. If it can be run immediately, write FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE at the top.
Some Special Notes: The Rogue PR Team is usually the sole point of contact with the Fresno Bee and Clear Channel radio for coverage of the whole Festival. Both companies want to deal with one person, so the Rogue PR Team is handling all contacts with them.
We must request that you do not send any PR material to the Bee or Clear Channel.
This may change in the future. If it’s OK for you to send material to the Bee or Clear Channel, we’ll let you know.
In the meantime, here are some categories of good places to get coverage:
If you’re from an outlying Valley town, the local paper will be very interested in your activities.
A whole lot of new little papers and magazines have appeared on the local scene. You’re local, you’re newsworthy, so go for it.
Look for publications that cover your kind of work: music magazines, fanzines, dance newsletters, Finger Puppet World, etc.
There’s approximately a gazillion Web sites that cover arts and entertainment news, both locally and worldwide.
Don’t think it’s not worth it to send your press release to a non-local publication or Web site. A lot of publications give coverage of events from all over for the benefit of travelers. One of our goals for the Rogue Festival is to promote Fresno as a tourist destination, so we’ll be pleased as punch if you can get some out-of-town ink.
There are other stations besides Clear Channel, and ethnic and independent radio stations can be very effective for reaching your audience. If you have personal connections at KFSR, KFCF, or non-English radio, use them.
If you have ties to your local ethnic or religious community, use them. Your community wants to support you, and they want to hear what you’re doing.
Reach for the widest audience possible. If your performance is wholly or in part in another language, or if you have ties to a non-English speaking community, you’re surely of interest to these media outlets.