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Seattle Fringe
Theatre Festival
Security Properties
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Muir Public Relations handled all media relations for the Seattle Fringe Theatre Festival for five years. The Festival is an unjuried theatre festival staged in a variety of venues throughout the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle. It is the longest running fringe theatre festival in the United States.
Muir's goal was to gain media attention in advance of and during the 11-day festival to boost attendance.
A key element of each year's campaign was a breathtakingly complete and thematic press kit. Typically more than an inch thick, each kit contained photos of all performers, press releases that told "How to Fringe" and discussed the "History of Fringe," and releases about unique show themes, performers, venues, etc. One reporter described it as "a tsunami of information."
1997
Theme: Fringe Feast
We played off the theme of food and feast throughout the text of the release, talking about a "cornucopia" of performances, characterizing a choice of performances as "ordering a daily special," and describing the "potluck of talent." To create the kit itself, we melted plastic utensils in the oven to flatten them and glued them on the cover, along with a checkered napkin.
The press kit was termed "prize-winning" by Joe Adcock, Seattle Post Intelligencer theatre critic. "In all my 20 years, one of the best."
1998
Theme: Naked Fringe
Too much fun! We sent a full-size rubber chicken taped to the front of every press kit with hot-pink tape trumpeting "I Got Naked at the Fringe!"
Press releases reinforced the theme, using language such as "sneak peak" and "peek-a-boo" throughout the text.
The naked chicken and the hot-pink tape were widely utilized as visuals in calendar listings, articles and page banners. Also notable: the press kit was shaped so that nothing could really sit atop it. That gives us the edge on a reporter's desk.
1999
Theme: Brave New Fringe
The poster featured a kewpie doll with hands placed defiantly on its hips. We dressed kewpie dolls in diapers that matched the poster, affixed them to the front of press kits, and delivered them in envelopes cut around the dolls.
The Seattle Post Intelligencer "What's Happening" cover featured the kewpie doll casting a huge shadow.
2000
Theme: Unsinkable Fringe
"Always on the edge, yet unsinkable, Fringe theatre survives."
A dollar-store inflatable ring carried the theme of "Unsinkable Fringe." Glued to the cover of the media kit and inflated, the ring made the kit large and memorable. Again, the image of the float ring was used by media in calendar listings and banner sections as a simple effective visual.
2001
A Fringe Oddity
Could anyone resist Hal and the Space Odyssey in the millennium year 2001?
Fringe chose the theme "A Fringe Oddity." To create the press kit, we painted large boxes black to mimic the monolith in the iconic movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, and we inserted the press materials inside. We then snuck the monoliths onto journalists' desks to greet them, inscrutable and pregnant with meaning. And full of Fringe.
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