Bloggers, Vloggers, Freebies, Impartiality and all that.

And that's the genius of the gifts the Mrs Doubtfire team have sent. The vloggers/bloggers re-enact the scene with the pie and dressing gown and essentially make their own commercial. For free.

Deffo Billington 😀

This happens in so many industries, even down to the free products your hairdresser is sent to encourage then to stock them, or your GP being sponsored to attend a conference with the understanding they might be more likely to consider prescribing a particular medication. I (as an academic) get sent textbooks in the hope I will recommend students buy them (or at least I used to do, now I tend to be sent access to electronic copies). It is marketing.

I'm certainly required to declare gifts over a certain value, but frankly I've never been given expensive gifts, so it's not an issue.

How you value a cake and dressing gown is difficult. The actual production cost of these is pretty low.

There are press nights too, of course. I've never attended these as press, but I've seen the various free flowing drinks and other gifts that get handed out to the invited. I have been to first previews and other special nights and been given various gifts, often quite rare, presumably in the hope that I'll share them on social media. Marketing again.

So really, I don't see anything from with promotional gifts within reason. Perhaps there is a question about what level of gift needs to be declared. If a company fly you to New York to review their new show, complete with a swanky hotel, that's one thing. A dressing gown, that most people will never wear, is another thing entirely.

This makes me laugh, of course it's all a game and it's been going on long before the internet.

I'm sure people would be shocked if they knew how music charts used to be collated before the advent of computerized point of sale.

IE it had very little to do with sales and the numbers were COMPLETELY off.

I suspect the postage costs are almost as much as the items. Buy 100 dressing gowns with a show logo from China and you're talking a few pounds a time.

You can send these items out to 100 people for less than the cost of one advert on the tube. You could argue that marketing firms that don't approach reviewers and influencers in this way are the ones who are mad and years behind the times.

We've never been offered press night tickets full stop have we? My memory might be betraying me but I can't recall an instance.  I dare say that the influence that TheatreBoard reviews from our members have just as much influence as some bloggers and even mainstream critics. Where else can you get such a diverse and in depth selection of reviews for a show, from regular theatre goers. No doubt if a show is well liked on here it has some impact, and likewise if it doesn't go down well. We know very much so how many industry professionals, producers, directors, PR's and artists do keep tabs here....

My own expertise in the field is a bit outdated, but I think the main difference is that a blog/vlog/website has ONE person who runs it, while this forum has dozens of people contributing.

So, if there's a new musical and Timmy from "Timmy's Theatre Travels" contacts the PR people and says "I'm coming to London and want to review this for my blog, can I have a press ticket?" they will know exactly who they are dealing with and will also usually ask for stats like how many views per day/month, etc. to see if it's worth their while. So Timmy gets his ticket (sometimes with plus one) and that's it.

But with a forum like this, who would they even give the ticket(s) to? And what counts as a proper review? Some people here write wonderful long and insightful reviews, others just a few lines. And wouldn't you (as a PR person) pick a forum member who's clearly positively biased towards a certain composer/writer/performer so it's almost 100% you get a positive gushing review and not have your show torn to shreds?

The only way to get press tickets (I'd think, I can't be sure) would be to appoint an official reviewer for each show, then ask for press ticket(s) for this person and later pin her/his official review prominently on top of the thread.

You could also add a post somewhere prominent that says "Want your show officially reviewed on Theatre Board, which has XXX views per days and a global reach? Contact us at..." once you have appointed official reviewers.

Which I feel would go against the democracy of a forum, where everyone has their equal say. But I don't know if the question was asked in earnest anyway or just wondering. Personally I much rather read the reviews and opinions here, as these people have put time, effort and money into seeing shows. I refuse to give those noisy windbag bloggers and vloggers the time of day, since I can't help thinking they do it all for attention and freebies and feeling "better than the herd" mostly and I can't take them seriously. There is one Broadway vlog I absolutely love because the person who runs it really manages to cut interesting documentaries with interviews, footage and so on and his enthusiasm shines through. But I can't bear another West End vlog where the person just blathers into the camera for 20 minutes, while all that's being said could have been in a written article that takes two minutes to read.

There used to be a few good Youtube theatre reviewers about, that seems to have died away. I used to like the break a leggers, they were clearly very knowledgeable and knew what they were talking about and very honest. I don't think they got very many freebies or invitations to press nights. There were a few more as well i liked. It seems now that the theatre content on Youtube is more general and filled with gossip and covering controversy and stuff with a few reviews thrown in. I imagine those sorts get these freebies because they mingle in with the right crowd.

I guess the reason that a lot of producers and directors ect don't like us is because there's no way to control the narrative, it's literally a free for all and if a show doesn't go down well there's literally pages and pages of criticism...which can't be attributed to just one critic or blogs opinion.... I remember all the messages and e-mails we've had complaining from the powers that be....but then you don't hear a peep when it's the opposite obviously! 

As The Fringe rapidly approaches, allow me to give you a small insight into what's happening with the absolute feral-ness that is Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Launch shows, and some actual shows, begin next Wednesday, the 2nd of August. I have Official Media Accreditation, and I currently have 415 un-dealt with emails from PR companies, inviting me to a variety of shows - a lot of them are either outwith the remit of the somewhat niche magazine I write for, or are not of sufficient interest to make me pick them up for the other publication I'm writing for which has a remit of 'whatever, just please don't include spoilers'. Some of the emails are so large that I've had to buy more storage from Google in order to still be able to use my Gmail. Some of the 415 are chasers, from people writing in increasingly desperate tones imploring me to review their show/interview their talent.

Most of these PR emails are for shows at The Big Four (Underbelly, Pleasance, Assembly, Gilded Balloon), or the next level down (Greenside, The Space, etc). This does not include emails from PRs acting for some of the 34 shows I am currently booked to see (where I've replied to them, and shifted the emails into dedicated sub-folders). I also have 3 EIF shows I'm seeing - less emails for EIF, as they appear to run it all in-house, and the individual shows don't generally need their own PRs because the runs are so short.

Of those 34 Fringe shows that I'm definitely seeing, I've bought tickets to 2 of them - one, at the Traverse, wouldn't give me a ticket (but would, it transpires, give 2 to a couple who run a reviewing website together - despite the very strictly worded notes that it is 1 ticket per publication), and one I just couldn't figure out how to request press tickets at all (odd, but, hey! - and I really want to see the show). I am also scheduled to attend 9 launches/'parties'.

And this is *so far*. I have some stuff still to try to book. But there's no way I could even hope to do much more than 10% of the shows I've (so far) been directly contacted about*. I know Fringe days are long, but I do still have to actually write the reviews of these shows, and mostly within 24 hours of seeing the show. So that's approximately 350+ wasted emails from PR companies / producers, that I can't even hope to reply to with a 'thanks for your email, but it's not right for me', because I don't have the time, or, to be frank, the energy.

The ticketing situation at the Fringe is the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen - and it feels like we're close to a 'People's Front of Judea' situation, as the big venues/promoters require you to contact them directly, rather than just booking for yourself via the media ticketing portal. I'd not be surprised if they split off from the Fringe Society entirely in the next few years. Expect clutching of pearls, but no actual action, when/if that happens.

But to demonstrate that not all 'reviewers' have even read the rules - my algorithm on Facebook has been showing me an advert for a show I'm booked to review in any event. A chap from one of the more notorious reviewing websites has commented under the advert to say that he can't see the show listed on the Media Ticketing website - and I want to scream at him that the Media Ticketing Portal - AS NOTED ON THE PAGE WHERE YOU HAVE TO CLICK TO CONFIRM YOU'VE READ IT - very clearly states that they are a 'contact directly' venue. If someone from a reasonably sized site can't be bothered to read the rules, what's the chance that Timmy from 'Timmy's Theatre Reviews' has?

And to give an insight into costs - I live local to Edinburgh, so no accommodation costs. Last year, I attended the Festivals for a total of 8 days, and spent a fraction over £22 per day on travel, food (generally a Tesco Meal Deal), and the occasional coffee/other drink. On one day I engaged in the 'luxury' of buying myself an over-priced burger from one of the vans on the side of Bristo Square (and it was still over-priced even after he gave me a discount for 'being press'). So, once again, not really 'a free ticket'.

The whole system is just untenable, and the PR companies don't really seem to be doing any due diligence on *who* a reviewer writes for (something we all have to put on our application for accreditation), and so, ultimately, if they're just taking a scatter gun approach, how much do they actually care about what any individual reviewer says, if they've managed to secure 20 reviewers (or more?) for one show, in an ocean of over 3500 shows?

(*I've had another PR email in the time it's taken me to write this.)