Today I revealed my plan to do away with lamppost advertising for my show in Edinburgh and instead give everyone who comes to see the show (at the Fringe) a free DVD.
I explain my motivations in
this video and also in this press release:
Were All Going To Die
Free DVD Giveaway!
Richards Herrings 2013 show is his 10th different solo stand-up show in 10 consecutive Fringes. Surely some kind of record?
And to celebrate this landmark he will be giving everyone who attends the show at the Pleasance Beyond a free 2 hour plus DVD called 10 made up of his favourite routines from the previous nine shows, plus his thoughts on each show and an exclusive reading of a blog that inspired the new show. Its the best of Richard Herring, including the routines, Someone Likes Yoghurt, Valentines Day Ferrero Rocher, Why Liberals Are More Racist Than Racists and The Deconstruction of the Genealogy of Christ. And its totally free!
But why?
Richard says, Its partly just that it seems like a nice idea to give my audience a present and thank them for the support theyve given me over the last 26 years in Edinburgh. But the other impetus was discovering that it cost me £3000 to put up big lamp post adverts. Posters like these are so ubiquitous that I dont think they have any impact anymore. And theyre all covered in four and five star reviews, which are usually from some obscure website or paper which isnt fooling anyone. If we all stopped doing it then wed save a lot of money. I thought, this year why not spend this £3000 on something that people might actually want and give a gift to the people who actually want to see me rather than create an eye-sore annoyance to people who dont? I think were throwing our money away and if other acts have three grand to spare for PR, then there must surely be more imaginative ways to spend it. Or they could just keep the £3000.
Every Fringe many acts pay thousands of pounds to landlords, promoters and PR firms and end up in serious debt. It seems a shame that advertising costs are also so high, especially when the Fringe brings so much revenue to the city already. It might be time for a journalist to investigate where the money from the various poster campaigns go and what the Councils part in it is.
You can buy tickets for the show
here
By the way if you've already donated at least £15 to the SCOPE programme fund this year and have your name in the programme (it's too late to do this now as the programme is now at the printers) then I will also send you the DVD (along with your signed programme) as a thank you.
A few people have asked if the DVD will be available to those unable to come to the Fringe and I think it's likely we may sell a limited number at gofasterstripe as the production of the DVDs cost more than I anticipated. But they will cost pretty much the same amount as a ticket to the show, so unless you really don't want to see the new show it'd be dumb to buy this if you can make it to the Fringe.
I am not sure that this will prove as advantageous to me in publicity terms as having posters, but it just seems criminal to be spending that kind of money on posters and it seems like a nice gesture to reward people who come to the shows. Also I hope it might spark some debate about this issue - I know some acts will disagree with me about the effectiveness of such advertising - and hopefully bring into question why comedians are being charged so much for this service and what Edinburgh Council's part is in it all. I have heard some stories which make the whole thing seem somewhat shady.
At the every least if people decided not to pay this much for the adverts then the price would drop. I have no doubt that the ads will continue, but as things stand their impact is not worth the expense. It's like an arms race where you feel you have to take part and you're all throwing money at it, but everyone loses.
I am chucking money at this in a different way and it might not work as a tactic to get people in. But I quite like the idea of rewarding people who are coming anyway (and presumably like my stuff) with some more of my stuff.
Ah it's fun being mildly subversive and refusing to give money the respect that it seems to think it deserves. Be nice it it causes me to sell a few more tickets, but it'll also be cool to say thanks to the regulars even if it doesn't.
This and other free and paid stuff are all
in my latest newsletter.
