Lead Time:

In an ideal world, you’d start letting the Media know about your show about 4 months before opening.  The absolute minimum amount of lead time between when your Media Release hits Press In-boxes and your show opening is 6 weeks. Less than 6 weeks lead time and getting coverage is likely to be wishful thinking. It’s also important to note that we need time to build your media release,  so give us a two week window to do our jobs first.

Research Your Competition:

If your show happens right around the Toronto Fringe and you’re not IN the Fringe… you’ll have one heck of an uphill battle on your hands. Do what you can to assess the competition and be aware that small companies have to work harder to compete against bigger, flashier, higher budget shows.

Media Kits Can Be Your Secret Weapon:

If you send them out early, design them well, and make sure they have the right selection of advance promo photos for Media Use. The goal of a Media Kit is to collect as much of the information the media needs to write about your show in one place, to make it easy for overbooked reviewers and journalists to write about your work.

Photos Are The Holy Grail:

If you want to get coverage, you need photos, and you need them early. Find a skilled, reasonably priced photographer (we can refer you to some) and do Advance PROMO shots to send out with your Media Kit. Promo shots involve finding a context in which you can do shots that capture the essense of the story or the texture of the play, but they are NOT photos of the production on stage.

Being A Great Writer

… doesn’t necessarily make you the best person to publicize your show. Writing for publicity purposes is different than writing for artistic purposes, and knowing how to choose the best elements and what to focus on to sell the show often requires perspective the creative team, frankly, might not have. You might just be too close to it!

Keep Your Expectations Realistic:

There are no guarantees, and in small-budget productions, the publicity seems like something you can do yourself – and you might be able to. But if you want to maximize your chances of getting seen, you do have to give media what they need in the format they need it, WHEN they need it. We’ll give the media exactly what they want, and make our submissions on your behalf the highest quality we can, but we can’t force them to come.  The company history, the nature of the play, the competition, the reviewer’s taste, the casting, the relevance of the piece to the current zeitgeist, etc etc etc  — all out of our control. However, we will make they know your show is happening, and sell it as best we can.