Back to: Your aims as a festival
Before you think about press and communications, you need to think about your overall aims and your strategy as a festival. What are your goals this year? Do you want to just sell more tickets to a general audience? Is there a new audience you are trying to reach, such as more young people? Do you want more industry attendees? Do you want to attract more sponsors for future editions?
Then you can tailor your press strategy to reach those specific aims. Just getting an article published might not be the best result. You might want a specific kind of article, or you might realise that social media or a podcast is actually a better result than a print article.
Even if you don’t have a huge PR budget, or a dedicated PR person on staff, you can still get effective, targeted results if you think creatively and build press relationships. For the price of a cup of coffee, you can get to know a local journalist and start building that bond. Open up that dialogue with press before the festival.