Introduction
This study will give analysis and explicate different facets of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in footings of public dealingss. The Edinburgh Fringe Festival is the largest humanistic disciplines festival in the universe, therefore it is of import to carefully see all the facets and chances from a public dealingss position, as it is a great illustration of the different sides and characteristics of public dealingss. After looking at the history of this festival, the study will supply an penetration in the positive and negative facets of the Fringe, name the chief rivals and give SWOT and PEST analysis. Then the cardinal public relation issues for the event will be analysed and analysis of the media environment relevant to the event will be given. Finally, a critical appraisal of the success of the event ‘s PR scheme will be considered.
History of the Fringe
The Edinburgh Fringe Festival originated in 1947 and it was created to observe and enrich European cultural life in the aftermath of the Second World War. It foremost started when eight Acts of the Apostless turned up at the Edinburgh international festival uninvited and decided to execute anyhow this so lead to more Acts of the Apostless following in their footfalls in the old ages to come. From this, the Festival Fringe Society was formed in 1959. The Fringe, these yearss, is now known as the largest humanistic disciplines festival in universe and in 2010 the Fringe featured 40,254 public presentations of 2,453 shows in 259 locales. It is held every August for three hebdomads in the Centre of Edinburgh and there are phases all over Edinburgh for illustration the Hilton Hotel, Edinburgh Castle and Underbelly. It is such a particular event as it caters for everyone by holding assorted Acts of the Apostless put on, such as: theater, comedy, dance, physical theater, musicals, operas, music, exhibitions and events.
Positive facets of the Fringe
The Fringe has been renowned for giving unknown performing artists a opportunity to be recognised as it is “ made up of emerging and established creative persons ” which is a reappraisal from edfringe.com. The Fringe has besides been acknowledged for holding world-wide acknowledgment for being one of the best humanistic disciplines festivals in the universe and this helps convey a batch of touristry into the capital metropolis. Each twelvemonth ticket gross revenues rise improbably as 1.8 million tickets were sold in 2009 and that increased to 1.9 million sold in 2010. This can be brought down to the effectual communicating from the society as they have advertised in newspapers, on postings, through telecasting adverts, on wireless adverts, on web sites and they have even branched out to new engineering by establishing a Fringe iPhone app. The Fringe is so popular because anyone can bask a show as they have a scope of amusement for all audiences. They include free shows excessively, which are of all time increasing because 558 shows at the 2010 Fringe were perfectly free, compared to 465 in 2009.
Negative facets of the Fringe
During the research it was found that the kids ‘s shows merely made up 4 % of the Fringe public presentation programme in 2010 and this may deter households to come to the events as there is small pick for the kids. Besides the dance and physical theater public presentations went down 0.5 % to 4.5 % in 2010 and this may be seen as the Fringe society non seeing these genres every bit of import as others such as comedy. Another downside is that the public presentation locations are far excessively widely dispersed throughout metropolis so many people will hold to pass a batch of money on going. There are a high figure of public presentations each twelvemonth so this means Acts of the Apostless will overlap one another doing people to lose out on some shows.
Main rivals
Throughout Scotland there are legion festivals, whether they are big or little scale.A A It is known from the official periphery web site that the Fringe has a market portion of 75 % of all attending at Edinburgh ‘s twelvemonth unit of ammunition festivals and yearly generates ?75 million for Edinburgh and the Scots Economy.A These figures from 2004/05 demonstrate the high profile of the Fringe as an event in Scotland.A Despite accounting for the huge bulk of the market portion in Scotland, there are other events throughout the state which seek visitants.
The Magners Glasgow International Comedy Festival takes topographic point overA 18 yearss with 350 public presentations from well-known and lifting comedians.A The festival held at the male monarchs theatre in Glasgow, specialises in comedy.A This is different from the periphery where although there are comedy events, there is an array of other humanistic disciplines as well.A For comedy enthusiasts the Magners comedy festival may be more attractive as it is specialised with more chance to see comedy.A As the event is besides merely held at one location, it ‘s more simple to happen and easier to see many public presentations without trekking across the city.A It may be on a much smaller graduated table that the Fringe but the less busy ambiance may be much more appealing to some persons.
The Stanza poesy festival which is held in St Andrews is described by visit Scotland as ‘where music, movie, dance and poesy work in harmony’.A The stanza poesy festival could be seen as a little graduated table Fringe festival nevertheless it chiefly specialised in poetry.A Within this, the purpose is to unite other humanistic disciplines into the poetry.A This alone merchandising point is a strength to the festival.A Held at the Byre theater in St Andrews, the festival is non improbably well-known.A This may hold been due to a failing in Pr scheme and demand for this sort of event.
Although the comedy and poesy festivals can non truly postulate with the periphery due to its mass graduated table, they are strong in some ways as they specialise in events for a specific mark audience.A However on a larger graduated table, the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo can be seen a more urgent competitor.A With public presentations from 40 states, the Tattoo invites visitants from all over the Earth to non merely see the event but besides perform.A Whereas at the periphery, it can be presumed that a big sum of the Acts of the Apostless will be British.A 35 % of the 217,000 audience each twelvemonth are from abroad which is advantageous as it means there is a great mix of cultures.A The periphery see ‘s similar figures for its abroad per centum nevertheless towers over the tattoo with its figure of visitors.A The tattoo is one chief event whereas the periphery is many events over a long period.A Therefore it is hard to compare the two as they are in wholly different formats.A However unlike the periphery, the tattoo is shown on telecasting with 100 million viewing audiences worldwide.A This illustrates the promotion of the tattoo doing it the periphery ‘s chief rival in Scotland.A However as the periphery is the largest Art ‘s festival in the universe, of course it will come out on top of other Scots festivals.
SWOT and PEST analysis
Through the SWOT analysis it was found that:
A·A A A A A A A A Strengths – Brings touristry to Scotland, there is a scope of amusement available and its largest humanistic disciplines festival in universe.
A·A A A A A A A A Weaknesses – Acts overlap one another, excessively large so travel costs addition and there are non adequate Acts of the Apostless for kids so may deter households.
A·A A A A A A A A Opportunities – Emerging Acts of the Apostless can go recognized, it entices different civilizations to see Scotland and it creates more occupation chances in Edinburgh.
A·A A A A A A A A Threats – The festival faces competition from rival festivals, environmental issues may forestall the festival taking topographic point and they may hold a deficiency of financess to back up such a large event.
Through the PEST analysis is was found that:
A·A A A A A A A A Political – It creates an environment where states can unite and it besides gives political relations a blithe nature ( by seting on dramas about David Cameron, etc. ) .
A·A A A A A A A A Economical – Brings money to Scotland and it besides encourages touristry.
A·A A A A A A A A Social – There are more tourers around and it enables the Scots civilization to be recognised.
A·A A A A A A A A Technological – A new web site has been launched and so has a new iPhone app, in order to advance the Fringe.
Analysis of the cardinal public relation issues for the event
Analysis of the media environment relevant to the event
Opportunities and menaces in footings of media dealingss
Edinburgh Fringe is a immense Festival, so there is a opportunity that it will acquire a batch of coverage – both good and bad The Edinburgh Fringe Festival is the largest humanistic disciplines festival in the universe so media will desire to cover it. Besides, there are a batch of chances to acquire media coverage outside Scotland and UK, particularly in the European states that are known for their love for humanistic disciplines such as France, Germany and Italy.
However, if something goes incorrect at that place will decidedly be a immense involvement from the media therefore everyone will cognize about it. As Edinburgh Fringe is such a tremendous event, taking topographic point over several hebdomads, with so many public presentations traveling on and so many people go toing there is a opportunity for great success every bit good as great harm in footings of media dealingss.
The cardinal media
First, the cardinal media are the print media and net sites – history shows that newspapers and the web sites of these newspapers are the beginnings of reappraisals and media coverage in general for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Second, the electronic media is a critical cardinal media because this festival is all about the humanistic disciplines hence photographic illustrations are really of import. Third, the wireless is besides one of the cardinal media as people truly like hearing the interviews with the event organizers and the performing artists of the Acts of the Apostless from the Festival. And eventually, the telecasting, particularly of import during the Festival – people can see what ‘s go oning in the Festival, see something they like and decide to go to. Television besides captures the temper and the ambiance of the festival best.
What would appeal to journalists and attract coverage
The popularity of the festival in societal webs such as chirrup, facebook, etc, every bit good as holding its ain web log creates the viva-voce consequence that ‘s non media generated so people get involved themselves and are non encouraged by the media but by other people. Media normally are interested if a batch of people get involved in this – they are intrigued – why is it so popular among the populaces, is this a new phenomenon and why. It besides attracts media because it seems more echt this manner – the company has n’t spent tonss and tonss of money for runs to pull the attending. The media besides like to compose about events that are attended by famous persons because this guarantees the involvement of the readers or about events that no 1 had expected or are flooring.
Bad narratives – Periphery 2008
The surrender of the Edinburgh Fringe manager, Jon Morgan, came at the terminal of a summer of bad intelligence narratives for the Edinburgh Fringe festival in 2008. Underliing them all is the inquiry of how to get by with the unprecedented popularity of the universe ‘s biggest humanistic disciplines festival. Most of the narratives were about a new computing machine system that struggled to make the occupation. The ?350,000 Liquid Box Office crashed on its first twenty-four hours of operation, doing gross revenues to be suspended for a hebdomad. Then it had problem publishing tickets, ensuing in holds in postal engagements. Once the Fringe began, it sold excessively many tickets for certain shows, taking to studies of “ crying childs ” being turned away.Finally the Fringe had to trash the advertised two-for-one “ ticket craze ” on the concluding twenty-four hours, as the system could n’t get by. One of the bad illustrations is besides the soi-disant comedy festival which was a selling exercising designed to pull sponsorship ( which it failed to make ) and spread the costs of advertisement between the large four locales: Assembly, Gilded Balloon, Underbelly and Pleasance. It caused alarm by including merely the comics who were playing in those locales and threatened to damage the profile of the Fringe itself. The cardinal box office returns had dropped by 10 % that twelvemonth.
Good narratives – 2009
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe was enduring the recoil of the media on the dorsum of a box office meltdown in 2008. The UK was in the center of the storm of the so called ‘credit crunch ‘ and many predicted the 2009 festival would be an expensive luxury that would be avoided by all but those most faithful to the festival. Under these fortunes it was a client that commissioned Whitespace to take a ‘blank canvas attack ‘ and re-think the traditional attack to selling. The consequence was a genuinely original and creatively disputing run construct and stuffs having over 100 viral pictures, and, for the first clip of all time, a multiple set of screens for the Fringe Programme – all on a really limited budget and under highly tight deadlines. Whitespace created the construct of an iconic and metaphorical ‘egg ‘ that symbolised the fact that the Fringe is ever different, and that one can ne’er be certain what lies within. Whitespace filmed the scientific ‘discovery ‘ of a apparently indestructible egg among Edinburgh ‘s tramworks. The attendant movie became the viral centerpiece of the run. Having taken the egg to a secret Fringe research lab overseen by Professor Ed Hegg, a series of filmed experiments ensued as he tried to uncover the egg ‘s contents. The narrative was launched several months before the Fringe. Dr Ed Hegg received a page of coverage in the Scotsman ; pre-launch promotion non usually received by the Fringe. Whitespace so developed a scope of printed collateral, from Jerseies to streamers, shows to fine billfolds and imperativeness base on ballss, every bit good as a run microsite and a societal media run. This included Dr Ed Hegg ‘s chirrup page and web log along with shot over 100 picture experiments for inclusion on the microsite. The consequence was an addition of about 9 % in ticket gross revenues and a programme reissue. The periphery site reached 32,906 alone visitants with a low bounciness rate and dwell clip of, on norm, 4 proceedingss. 10 % of all periphery site visits resulted in a visit to the booking subdivision of www.edfringe.com and 21 % of all visits resulted in a coveted action.
Good Stories – Periphery 2010
“ Fringecover was the top trending Twitter subject in Scotland on Thursday 25th and Friday 26th March and it was the 2nd most tweeted subject across the UK. ” Inspired by the Fringe ‘s rule that anyone with an thought and a vision can convey their show to Edinburgh ; Whitespace invited the Twitter community to state Johanna Basford the most unusual thing they ‘d wish to see at the 2010 Fringe supplemented by # fringecover. For two yearss, from 10am to 10pm on Thursday 25th and Friday 26th March, Johanna recreated Twitterers ‘ suggestions in real-time in her ain alone exemplifying manner.
The Whitespace originative squad so applied Johanna ‘s illustrations to all facets of the Fringe ‘s promotional stuffs including, three screen versions of the programme ; the ticket, its billfold and envelope ; the Fringe store ‘s window show and pop-up exhibition panels. Audiences at the Fringe festival in Edinburgh bought about 2 million tickets last twelvemonth, one time once more crushing the old twelvemonth ‘s record. Kath Mainland, the event ‘s main executive, said the sale of more than 1.95m tickets for more than 40,000 public presentations had shown the festival was “ the greatest show on Earth ” . The Fringe said this twelvemonth ‘s event, once more dominated by comedy, had outstripped last twelvemonth on most steps: there were 40,254 public presentations of 2,453 shows at 259 locales, affecting more than 21,000 performing artists. More than 550 shows were free.
A critical appraisal of the success of the event ‘s PR scheme
Decision
This study has analysed different public dealingss ‘ facets of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. It has provided research on the background and history of the event, analysis of the event, analysis of the cardinal public dealingss issues for the event, analysis of the media environment relevant to the event, every bit good as a critical appraisal of the success of the event ‘s PR scheme. One of the clear ideas after the analysis of the festival is that the Fringe has decidedly experienced bad times in footings of public dealingss ; nevertheless, the organizers have merely learnt from their errors and chosen much better PR schemes that have resulted in growing in the ticket gross revenues, despite the really bad economic state of affairs. Audiences have come to cognize the Edinburgh festival periphery as the topographic point to see every sort of art ; from the most inventive kids ‘s theater to topical and acute comedy and theater which challenges audiences to discourse and re-consider non merely their universe but the universe in general. Kath Mainland, the event ‘s main executive has said: “ Edinburgh is without uncertainty the universe ‘s prima festival finish and audiences continued to be inspired and enthralled by the many and varied events on offer. ”
