Bloggers, Vloggers, Freebies, Impartiality and all that.

Ah, I see. Cakes in the shape of dressing gowns. I thought it meant actual dressing gowns. Sorry.

Smart. Basically means these bloggers will feel so flattered by this that they won’t say a word against the show when it’s on.

I know we’ve (rightfully) questioned the impartiality of reviewers working for the mainstream press but if getting a good review from a blogger/vlogger is dependent on a gift of a cake/dressing gown/tote bag/doll* or any other trashy item then we are in trouble.

*ETA free tickets too, obvs. 

Surely free swag isn't going to sway anyone? Film studios often send free stuff to promote a film and it's never in exchange for good reviews.

I clearly wouldn't be a good blogger as I'd take the swag and still trash a show if I didn't like it!

Some of them are worried about losing their free tickets. They don’t like to upset certain companies in case it means they cannot visit again in the future for nothing. I remember Mickey-Jo got in a right huff about not getting a press ticket to the bands visit.



Would you consider being a blogger / vlogger a job ? Do they actually get paid ?

Indeed I do, you might be surprised

With regards to the PR packages (cakes/ dressing gowns), it's a tricky one as these are distributed to us as sizeable social media users rather than as critics, hence they don't send any to the times!

It's a tricky duality to navigate, WhatsOnStage operates in a similar capacity as an advertiser as well as reviewing, just depends on the integrity of the critic

The way heating costs are rocketing if any show would like to send me a dressing gown it would be most welcome.

It was Mrs Doubtfire
Bloggers were sent meringue pies and dressing gowns.

I don’t get the sudden outrage. If this is the first time you’ve been aware of reviewers, bloggers, or any form of press receiving promotional articles (be it tickets, merch , etc) then perhaps you’ve been living in a bubble.

Heard the word “influencer” lately? They exist almost solely on a constant stream of freebies, comps and goodwill, because their reach has value.
For decades Press night at theatres has never been an evening of a full house of paying attendees. Critics and reviewers will get comped seats (though not on the understanding they’ll give a favourable review) but because they will subsequently go out and talk about (promote) the show.

All those performance features on programmes like The One Show are another strand of this. ‘Come perform your song and we’ll talk about your show.’

Merchandise - be it free to a blogger, critic, celeb or influencer or brought off the stand by a fan - is just promotional material aimed at selling a product (in this case a show) further.
Shows don’t sell hoodies for people to keep warm, it’s so that someone’s walking down the street wearing a big logo, advertising the show.
In just the same way, providing some thematic goodies to people with a large relevant reach is doing just the same, advertising the show.

This is nothing new and has existed in many different forms over the years in countless industries. Roll back a few decades and if a pub landlord buys enough of a product they’ll get beer mats, flags, and a whole host of other tat for free to distribute to promote a product. This is just another vein of the same stream.

Welcome to the world of advertising.

(Disclosure - I review theatre for a long-running, UK-based magazine, with a "niche" readership. Sometimes, I get invited to Press Nights. I am on some PR Lists, my editor at the magazine is on many more, and will forward Press Night invites to me. We decline more Press Night invites than we accept, for a variety of reasons, some to do with logistics (usually too short notice), some because the show doesn't match up with our audience.)

I think some people here are under a misunderstanding about how 'PR lists' work.

So, let's say you're a person/company/venue, who has a show that you want people to come and see. You might have a formal press night, but this is less likely if you're at the smaller scale/fringe end of proceedings. Even so, the person/company/venue, has outsourced the PR for their show to a PR company. Sometimes the PR company is a huge operation, sometimes it's one woman in zone 5 with a fierce set of connections. Other than the payment of a budget from the person/company/venue to the PR agency, there is unlikely to be a formal connection between the two even if the PR agency acts for the person/company/venue on a repeat basis.

So, PR person gets in touch with reviewer/blogger/influencer: "Hey, we've got this great new show we're really excited about. Can we offer you a ticket for press night/interview with {actor/other creative}/some copy for your newspaper/magazine/website/etc?" Sometimes, the show they've got is relevant to your interests and the interests of your audience. Sometimes it's not. You have a conversation about that. In some cases, you agree to see the show for review (either at Press Night, or, in the case of those smaller shows, at some point in the run). You get a "free ticket" to the show. Depending on the size of the venue, the existence or not of a formal press night, and the extent of the reviewer's perceived 'reach', you might get a Plus One - not always though. If you're very lucky, you get a voucher for a free drink for when you see the show.

You see the show. It's... OK? Not outright terrible. Not brilliant. You write a review. Because you're not an awful human being, you try to find something nice about it - maybe the costumes were lovely? Maybe the actors were doing the best job they could with the material they'd been given? But you also ensure that there's no pull quote in what you say, and you give it three stars out of 5 (the star rating that marketing departments cannot use). You produce that review within 24 hours of seeing the show.

The PR agency have your details now. The next time they have a show, they will contact you, and, once again, offer you a "free ticket".

You would have to go completely off-piste in a review (think - racism, sexism, able-ism, just outright insults and swearing), to be taken off a PR's list.

It's all a game - they know that, we know that. They are just trying to get the existence of their show known by as many people as possible, for the smallest spend possible.

If a show is terrible, then, trust me, the PR agency will realise that pretty quickly, and, again, as long as you aren't outright insulting in your review, they'll still be in touch about future shows. And, as noted above, a decent marketing team can use 1 and 2 stars effectively in an ad campaign ("Come and see the show the critics hated - but you know better, don't you?").

If a show is great, then let the four and five stars roll! I had a good time, I enjoyed the show, or was challenged by the content and people should experience this. Fantastic! Let the superlatives and the Pull-Quote worthy words flow! You publish within 24 hours, and you find yourself on the posters! (Note - if you aren't MSM, or a specialist theatre review site (West End Wilma etc), you aren't getting onto the poster, unless it's Edinburgh Fringe, where they'll throw every decent review they get onto their hoardings).

And being sent 'merch' or any sort of freebie is really, really unusual. Mrs Doubtfire is the sort of show with a huge budget that will have a correspondingly huge budget for marketing, and so they can afford to spend what probably amounts to a Grand or so on freebies to a small number of people.

I put "Free ticket" in speech marks, because "free" is an interesting word. There's the cost of getting to the theatre - everyone has one, unless you live literally on the theatre's doorstep. Then there's the cost of time to write up the review. Even a 500 word piece is a good couple of hours in front of the PC - there is no such thing as 'a quick blog post'. In my day job, I charge a minimum of £40 per hour for my time. I realise not everyone is paid at that level, but theatre is a game for people with money, especially these days, and I am, very obviously, at the poorer end of the pool whenever I go and see anything (including shows I've bought a ticket for). So, let's be generous and assume it only takes me an hour to travel to the show - two hours at the show - one hour home - write and publish review: 3 hours? (that's probably on the quick side). That's 7 hours - which is £280 worth of my time, *plus* the actual cost of travel, *plus* the cost of grabbing a Tesco Meal Deal on the way to the theatre (Press Nights have a tendency to start early). £300 isn't unreasonable by this point. For a 'free ticket' with a face value of somewhere from £40 - £75 - because the 'best seats' at Press Nights, those ones that are "Premium Seats" in the West End - they go to friends and family of the cast and 'celebrities', on Press Night - actual Press/reviewers/bloggers/influencers are seated further back, or to the sides.

Sometimes, a company/venue might have their own in-house PR/Marketing team. That's unusual, but does happen. If you slate their shows, you might find yourself off the list, but again, depends on how big your reach is, and whether they know that the show is terrible. The Times could slate shows repeatedly, and still get invited back every subsequent time.

A 'Free ticket' for being on a PR list doesn't mean that we 'lose the objectivity' at all. And I'd point out that the people at the top of the tree (The Guardian, The Times) are on exactly the same PR list as those of us writing for smaller publications / Social Media audiences are. I once sat next to Mark Shenton, then of The Stage, at a Press Night for a show at Southwark Playhouse. He hated the show (I read his review), we loved it - but the specific show was exactly the sort of thing that our readers would be very into. Mark Shenton has not lost his objectivity by being given a free ticket, and a small glass of white wine, and placed on a PR's List. Neither have I - and both he and I are on the radar of the same PRs.