2009 Sponsorship Proposal

Edinburgh 2009

ContentsIntroduction - The Edinburgh Festival 3Introduction - The Pleasance 4Pleasance stats 5Pleasance Courtyard 6Pleasance Dome and Brooke’s Club 7Media opportunites 8Sponsorship opportunities 9Facts and figures at-a-glance 10 & 11

Pleasance sponsorship proposal 2009 | 4

The Edinburgh Festival FringeThe Edinburgh Festival Fringe is the largest festival on the planet (Guinness Book of World Records) attracting high quality and innovative performances from the world’s most exciting talent, alongside established household names.

Edinburgh now welcomes 2.6 million visitors to its festivals each summer. Record audiences last year made the Fringe a 1.7 million ticket success, smashing all arts festival records and reflecting a 10.8% increase on 2007 figures.

Fringe 2008 featured 31,320 performances of 2,088 shows in 247 venues.

The Pleasance welcomed 500,000 visitors, selling 20% of all festival tickets.


Images courtesy of the Guardian - ‘A Pleasance Day’

The PleasanceOver 25 years, the Pleasance has grown into the largest and most highly respected venue at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, with an international profile and a network of alumni that reads like a Who’s Who of contemporary culture. The Pleasance is on its own thesingle largest festival on the planet.

Split between two venues, the Pleasance Courtyard and the Pleasance Dome offer twenty-one performance spaces, ranging in size from 50 to 740 seats, with nine on-site cafes and bars attracting crowds to the all-day buzz and legendary atmosphere from mid-morning to 4am throughout August.

As well as attracting big names such as Alan Rickman, Frank Skinner and Paul Merton, the Pleasance is also the most popular venue for up-and-coming artists and companies.

The programme has included a veritable hall of fame:Peter Kay, Timothy West, Stephen Fry, Jo Brand, David Baddiel, Al Murray, Steven Berkoff,Richard Whitely, Cheek by Jowl, Nicholas Parsons, Julian Clary, The Mighty Boosh, Bill Bailey, Ross Noble, Frankie Boyle, Ennio Marchetto, Steve Coogan, Russell Brand, Nichola McAuliffe, The Reduced Shakespeare Company, La Feura dels Baus, Eleanor Bron, David Strassman, Catherine Tate, Michael McIntyre, Omid Djalili and The League of Gentleman.

In 2008, shows at the Pleasance were nominated for 35 awards including Fringe 1st, Total Theatre, if.comedy (formerly Perrier) and Stage Awards. In the past 24 years the Pleasance has hosted the Perrier / if.comedy award winner 12 times.

In 2009, the Pleasance will celebrate its 25th Festival, which provides a unique opportunity for sponsorship to feature in the increased publicity surrounding thePleasance this year.

The Pleasance is a registered charity, a not-for-profit organisation dedication to providing a platform for new theatre companies, new artists and new ideas.

Paul Merton

Catherine Tate Peter Kay


Pleasance statsTotal number of tickets sold in 2008350,000

Total number of shows206

Total number of performances4,639

Increase in audience 2007 - 200814%

Audience origins:59% Scotland 30% Rest of UK11% Overseas

Audience ages71% Under 35

Social grouping84% ABC1 earners – spending power in excess of £70million

Even split between female/male

70% of tickets are sold online


Images courtesy of the Guardian - ‘A Pleasance Day’

The Pleasance CourtyardThe Pleasance Courtyard houses fifteen performance spaces, six bars and three cafes positioned around a busy cobbled courtyard attracting over 500,000 visitors. For many people, the Pleasance Courtyard IS the Fringe!

‘The Pleasance Courtyard is the place to meet people. Friendly,

unpretentious and unthreatening with an unwritten rule that the

recognisable can be as private or as public as they wish.’

The STAge

‘The best of all possible worlds.’ The ObServer

‘This is where Glastonbury meets the country pub and drinks the

bar dry’.The TImeS

Pleasance Courtyard

Pleasance Courtyard at night

Every night at the Pleasance Courtyard

The Pleasance is the only venue to offer the true ‘Fringe Day Out’ and few Fringe goers leave Edinburgh without at least one visit, regardless of whether they buy tickets for Pleasance shows.



The Pleasance DomeThe six performance spaces at the Pleasance Dome surround a palm court and the largest festival mural in Edinburgh. After hours, the Pleasance Dome offers the festival nightlife a place to hang out with live music from midnight until 5am; also home to the infamous Brooke’s Club.

The added bonus at the Pleasance is that you might just find yourself rubbing shoulders with the mega-stars. Anyone from Sean Connery or Alan Rickman to Billy Connolly or Judi Dench are regulars – queuing up for a show alongside the everyday punter.

‘More exclusive is Brookes Bar situated in the Pleasance Dome ... But don’t just turn up expecting to get in. Admission is by invitation only . . . unless you’re a particularly experienced ligger.’ The ScOTSmAn

The infamous brooke’s club in the Pleasance Dome - an exclusive performers and members club which is frequented by the fabulous and the famous throughout the festival.

Brooke’s Members Club

Nightlife at The Pleasance DomePalm Court at The Pleasance Dome

Brooke’s Club

Since the Pleasance Dome opened as a Fringe venue in 2000, it has inspired the growth of other venues in Bristo Square, now the hub of the Edinburgh Fringe.

With over 200 productions in the Pleasance programme each year, there will be as many as 1,500 performers, producers, directors and supporting crew connected to the venue. They will all share the much sought after membership of ‘Brooke’s Club’, for performers and press, situated at the centre of the Pleasance Dome. Other members will include press, promoters, agents and talent spotters.

Media opportunitiesFrom Breakfast TV to Radio 4 to CBBC’s Newsround, the media opportunities are there for the taking.

The Pleasance Courtyard has become synonymous with the Fringe and therefore tends to feature in most TV coverage.

For many years, the Pleasance Courtyard has been the hub of the BBC’s coverage and broadcasts, with shows including Just a Minute, Loose Ends, The Now Show and I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue.

Each year BBC 2’s Culture Show broadcasts from the Pleasance three times to a total of 8 million viewers during the festival. The BBC are booked to return in 2009.

Mile End Michael McIntyre Simon Amstell

‘You can’t move in Edinburgh for camera crews…in the Pleasance Courtyard all you need to do to

get on the telly is stand in a queue. Scarcely a round gets bought without a comedian being

interviewed.’ The herAld

Alan Rickman being interviewed for BBC Culture show, which produces three episodes at the Pleasance Courtyard, shown to

a combined national audience of 8 million, on six broadcasts during the festival (2008 figures)

BBC Culture Show

Other coverage has included BBC Scotland (Reporting Scotland), STV News, Sky News, BBC Breakfast News, STV’s Scotland Today, Channel 4, Newsround and even Al Jazeera.

Features in national papers and on national radio give the venue more coverage than any other. In 2008, the Pleasance press office logged over 2,200 press requests throughout August.


Sponsorship opportunities


The Pleasance is interested in developing new partnerships including a Headline Sponsor for 2009. Packages are fully flexible and can include the following opportunities.

1. Sponsor branding could include the following:a. Reverse side of all tickets sold from the Pleasance box office (including tickets sold to festival shows at other venues - totalling 350,000)b. Banners decorating the Pleasance Courtyard and the Pleasance Domec. Pleasance, Assembly, Gilded Balloon and Underbelly combined programme (400,000)d. Parasols over tables in the Pleasance Courtyard (30 in total)e. Staff T-Shirts (450 in total)f. Promotional literature produced by the visiting artists: average 1000 posters + 20,000 flyers per show (excluding alcohol branding on children’s shows)g. Pleasance advertisements in the main Fringe Programme (400,000) festival publications, national press and TV.h. Venue signange: including a large banner outside the Pleasance Courtyard, clearly visible from a main feeder road to the city centre from the North.i. Websites: www.edfringe.com (13.6 million hits through August) and www.pleasance.co.uk (370,000 hits through August).

3. vIP hospitality4. Free tickets5. Access passes to performance areas and brooke’s club.6. media Opportunities

Other sponsorship opportunities related to the future development of Pleasance Edinburgh, including a Pleasance KidZone and Animation Festival are also open to negotiation.

We would be delighted to consider any ideas to create a unique sponsorship package - please contact Anthony Alderson on 020 7619 6868 or email [email protected].

*NB: the Pleasance would like to retain their relationship with Hill Dickinson (a media and entertainment industry law firm) and media sponsors, Spotlight, BBC Radio 4 and The Stage.

Pleasance Courtyard Bar Sponsored table umbrellas TV Crews

Facts and Figures at-a-glancePerformancesNumber of productions 2008 206Total number of performances 4,139Number of artists 472Total number of performance spaces 21Total number of tickets sold 350.000

BarsNumber of bars 6 (Pleasance Courtyard), 3 (Pleasance Dome)Total bar sales £762,767Draft beer sales 1,151 x 11 gallon kegs of lagers Fosters, San

Miguel, KronenbourgBottled beer sales 754 24 in case bottled lagers

1344 12 in a case bulmers ciderSpirits 170 x 1.5 litre bottle Gordons Gin

280 x 1.5 litre bottle Smirnoff VodkaOther (soft drinks) 180 x 24c/s500ml coke

180 x 24c/s500ml Diet coke80 x 7litre BIB Coke44 x 7litre BIB Diet Coke

Drinks sponsorship exclusive deals for 2009? No deal currently in place, and we would not permit any product to be exclusive with regard to pouring rights if it detracted from a fair customer choice. We can do main line orstandard pour. Any new products would have to be price matched to currentlike for like products. This would require discussion with EUSA and agreement once interest was expressed

Which sponsors were in place for 2008? Scottish and Newcastle with products as a ‘must stock’ as follows:FostersSagresbulmers OriginalThe following were ‘may stock’ products:KronenbourgSam miguelKronenbourg blancJohn SmithsguinnessStrongbow

* NB: All statistics are based on the 2008 festivalPleasance sponsorship proposal 2009 | 10

ProductionTotal number of staff 85 Production

75 Box office / FOH / street team190 Bar and catering staff

Est. number of gobos / banners etc Possible 10 gobo projectionsPossible 10 banners (if headline)

Marketing & PR

Total number of posters printed (total incl external by individual promoters)

70,000 posters

No. of posters / billboards available for sponsor logos All print carry’s Pleasance logo, and could carry ECF logo and sponsor logo if headline sponsor

Total number of flyers printed (total including external by individual promoters)

2,000,000 leaflets

No. of flyers printed by venue that could have spon-sors logos on

All print carries Pleasance logo, and could carry ECF logo and sponsor logo if headline sponsor.

Total number of reviews / articles 4,072 press requests2,800 reviews

Number of 5 * reviews / performances 75 - 5 star reviewsTV appearances / number of TV crews 475 TV requests, including BBC Culture Show

hosted 3 times within the Pleasance Courtyard, estimated viewing figures over the festival – 8million people.

BBC Radio 4 (17th year at Pleasance) 8 Broadcasts all credited from Pleasance.Number of ECF brochures to be printed in 2009 400,000 ECF Brochures

50,000 Pleasance Brochures

Total marketing and PR spend £80,000

Facts and Figures at-a-glance (cont.)


Pleasance Courtyard

For all enquiries please contact Anthony Alderson [email protected] / 020 7619 6868

Mark Watson

Documents

2009 Sponsorship Proposal