Media and Marketing Artist Advisor (fixed term)

The idea at the heart of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe is simple: anyone with a desire to perform and a venue willing to host them is welcome. No individual or committee determines who can or cannot perform at the Fringe. It all began in 1947 with eight companies – six of them from Scotland – taking a risk, turning up uninvited and performing on the ‘fringe’ of the inaugural Edinburgh International Festival. Over 75 years later, the Fringe has grown to become one of the greatest platforms for creative freedom in the world, second only to the Olympics in terms of global ticketed events.

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society was founded by artists to nurture and uphold the Fringe's values of inclusivity, experimentation and imagination. We exist to support, advise and encourage everyone who wants to participate in the Fringe, provide information and assistance to audiences, and celebrate the Fringe and what it stands for all over the world.

We are seeking to appoint an experienced individual to the position of Media and Marketing Artist Advisor (reporting to the Artist Development Manager). Leading up to and during the Fringe, the Artist Development team provide professional development advice to artists to help them make the most of their time at the Fringe. The Fringe Society also has a media centre for journalists, helping the press to find what they are looking for without recommending or making value judgements about specific shows.

The Media and Marketing Artist Advisor role sits within the Artist Development team, advising artists on potential marketing activity and media engagement, while working closely with the Media Office to stay up to date with Fringe news stories and media outlets who are in town.

Role and responsibilities

• Acting as a first point of contact with Fringe artists and participants for all their marketing, media and audience engagement queries.
• Advising artists on marketing activity to promote their show, including social media, print and flyer distribution and managing a marketing timeline.
• Providing bespoke one-to-one advice to Fringe artists on how to promote their show and engage with media, such as how to contact the press, writing and distributing a press release, and how to engage the right audience for their work.
• Providing structured feedback to artists on the content and structure of their press releases, and working closely with the Artist Development team to develop guides and resources to help participants.
• Working closely with the Media and Artists Services teams to stay up to date on various opportunities happening in and around the Fringe.
• Signposting artists to a range of online and in-person information sessions in the run up to and during the Fringe, as well as participating in panels for these sessions.
• Supporting artists with queries such as how to boost ticket sales, how to approach media and how to find and communicate effectively with their audience.
• Supporting the wider Artist Services and Media teams with the set-up and running of events such as the Made in Scotland press launch, Meet the Media, the Fringe programme launch and the Welcome Address.
• Supporting the Media Office by working with the wider team to upload reviews to edfringe.com.
• Supporting the Media Office with further adhoc requests.

Person specification

• Knowledge and experience of a range of marketing techniques, including festival marketing, digital and social media marketing and building an audience.
• A clear understanding of the work of the Fringe Society and the ability to give objective, fair and consistent information and advice.
• Experience of working in a marketing, PR or media environment – either in-house or agency.
• Experience of working with media, particularly writing and distributing press releases, and pitching to the press.
• Experience of working in a busy, fast-paced environment where you must prioritise your workload, work independently and as part of a team, and creatively problem-solve.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills, and excellent administrative skills.
• Customer-facing experience with an ability to listen to individual enquiries, empathise with their situation and confidently give advice and solutions.
• Excellent organisational skills, including diary management.
• A background and understanding of theatre, comedy, music or other forms of art or entertainment.
• Knowledge of the Fringe media landscape.
• Experience of working at or participating in an arts festival, or working in the arts and entertainment sector.

Rate of pay and hours of work

The rate of pay for this post is £14.15 per hour. Normal working hours 35 hours a week, worked from 10:00 to 18:00, Monday to Friday with a one-hour unpaid lunch break. In the run up to and during the festival you may be required to work additional days and hours. Any additional work will be mutually agreed in advance and rates of pay will increase to reflect this. From the beginning of the festival, shifts are eight hours long between 09:00 to 18:00 (including a 30-minute unpaid lunch break) worked to cover our opening hours across Monday to Sunday. Your working hours will be organised according to a rota system which the Society will notify you of in advance of the Fringe.

This role will be based from our offices and Fringe Central. We are a flexible working employer and therefore are happy to discuss flexible working at any stage of the application process. We are unable to offer remote working for this position. We can offer varied start and finish times and core hours with flexibility around them.

We use positive action under section 159 of the Equality Act in relation to disability or race. This means that if we have two candidates of equal merit in our process, we will seek to take forward the D/deaf, disabled, Black, Asian or ethnically diverse candidate in order to diversify our staff team. The Fringe are active members of the Festivals Edinburgh Sustainability Working group and include climate action as one of the headline targets in the Fringe development goals. As part of the commitments of this work, all Fringe staff members are expected to assist with the Fringe Society’s environmental goals and consider these in all elements of your work.

We are also committed to maintaining the open-access policy of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. We are an equal opportunity employer and welcome applications from all sectors of the community. We are also proud to be a Disability Confident Employer and aim to successfully employ and retain disabled people and those with health conditions. We expect employees to support these commitments and to assist in their realisation.