Edinburgh 2009

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

Pleasance sponsorship proposal 2009 | 4

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe
The 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’

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The Pleasance
Over 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 the
single 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 the
Pleasance 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.

Catherine Tate Peter Kay

Paul Merton

Pleasance sponsorship proposal 2009 | 4

Pleasance stats
Total number of tickets sold in 2008
350,000
Total number of shows
206
Total number of performances
4,639
Increase in audience 2007 - 2008
14%
Audience origins:
59% Scotland
30% Rest of UK
11% Overseas
Audience ages
71% Under 35
Social grouping
84% 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’

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The Pleasance Courtyard
The 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 best of all possible worlds.’

The Observer

‘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

‘This is where Glastonbury meets

the country pub and drinks the
bar dry’.
The Times

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.

Pleasance Courtyard at night

Pleasance Courtyard
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The Pleasance Dome
The 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.

Palm Court at The Pleasance Dome Nightlife at The Pleasance Dome

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.

Brooke’s Club
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.

‘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
Pleasance sponsorship proposal 2009 | 7
Media opportunities
From 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.

‘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
BBC Culture Show
the festival (2008 figures)

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.

Mile End Michael McIntyre Simon Amstell

Pleasance sponsorship proposal 2009 | 8
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 Dome
c. 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 Hospitality
4. Free tickets
5. 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

Pleasance sponsorship proposal 2009 | 9
Facts and Figures at-a-glance
Performances
Number of productions 2008 206
Total number of performances 4,139
Number of artists 472
Total number of performance spaces 21
Total number of tickets sold 350.000
Bars
Number of bars 6 (Pleasance Courtyard), 3 (Pleasance Dome)
Total bar sales £762,767
Draft beer sales 1,151 x 11 gallon kegs of lagers Fosters, San
Miguel, Kronenbourg
Bottled beer sales 754 24 in case bottled lagers
1344 12 in a case bulmers cider
Spirits 170 x 1.5 litre bottle Gordons Gin
280 x 1.5 litre bottle Smirnoff Vodka
Other (soft drinks) 180 x 24c/s500ml coke
180 x 24c/s500ml Diet coke
80 x 7litre BIB Coke
44 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 or
standard pour. Any new products would
have to be price matched to current
like 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:
Fosters
Sagres
Bulmers Original
The following were ‘may stock’ products:
Kronenbourg
Sam Miguel
Kronenbourg Blanc
John Smiths
Guinness
Strongbow

* NB: All statistics are based on the 2008 festival

Pleasance sponsorship proposal 2009 | 10
Facts and Figures at-a-glance (cont.)
Production
Total number of staff 85 Production
75 Box office / FOH / street team
190 Bar and catering staff

Est. number of gobos / banners etc Possible 10 gobo projections

Possible 10 banners (if headline)
Marketing & PR
Total number of posters printed (total incl external by 70,000 posters
individual promoters)
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 2,000,000 leaflets
by individual promoters)
No. of flyers printed by venue that could have spon- All print carries Pleasance logo, and could carry
sors logos on ECF logo and sponsor logo if headline sponsor.
Total number of reviews / articles 4,072 press requests
2,800 reviews
Number of 5 * reviews / performances 75 - 5 star reviews
TV 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

Pleasance Courtyard
Pleasance sponsorship proposal 2009 | 11
 Mark Watson

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