The Cult of Culture: Finding Your Fringe Following

To our more discerning readers, it won’t be news that this year’s Edinburgh Fringe is over. But for the venues, companies and artists, the Festival works a bit like Christmas for the advertising industry — plans for next year are already well underway.

Thinking about the life-cycle of theatre, with all its passion, planning and potential pitfalls, writer, performer and in-house Distribution Manager George Rennie reflects on how to build a Fringe following, and turn this into year-round fandom.

George Rennie is a writer, performer and arts marketer who produces independent theatre and works for Mobius Industries. His solo Shakespearean tragicomedy, Hamstrung, performed at Pleasance Courtyard throughout this year's Edinburgh Fringe.

Warning: it may get culty!

As a Fringe first-timer, there’s so much to figure out. Notwithstanding making a show, finding a venue and securing funds, reaching the right audience is one of the biggest challenges Fringe artists face in the most intensely competitive arts festival in the UK.

So how do we do it? Theatre marketing may seem like an arcane craft, but for some it’s a full-time job, drawing on visual arts, behavioural sciences, and good old-fashioned charm. In preparing for this year’s Fringe, I chatted to a number of seasoned Fringers, including drag impresario and self-made Biblical King, Riss Obolensky, creator of cult-hit Healing King Herod. How did they command authority and draw people to them in a show very much about building a following?

This may sound somewhat deranged, but for such a wildly emotion-driven festival, we might find some secrets on how to make our own success by looking to the masters (and monsters) of history’s most notorious cults. I’m not advocating mind control and psychological abuse, but amidst all of the toxicity, there must be something positive we can learn?

In the vein of Netflix’s How to Build a Cult, here are some of the tricks and tactics used by these insidious spiritual demagogues to convince people they are worthy of their time.

Embrace Your Calling

Charles Manson, Jim Jones and Jaime Gomez all had one thing in common. They weren’t just people, but personas. Standup comedians craft their identities in much the same way, building a heightened, performative version of themselves with a strong perspective, offering a way to see the world that is full of humour and forbidden truths.

As a creative, producer or company, it can be incredibly helpful to provide a consistent brand to your audience. Create rules and parameters — a tone of voice, attitude and style. Make this clear to yourself, and try out how to share this with the world. Your brand needs to have an identity, as does your audience.

Identify Your Targets

The profile of cult initiates is not that of naive, uncritical sheep. They are often highly idealistic, dissatisfied with the status quo and looking for a source of deeper connection. Cult leaders tap into these values, drawing on spiritual, artistic and purpose-driven values to provide meaning and shape to people’s over-complicated lives. They promise to make the world a better place through alternative ways of living, tapping into the curiosity, desires (and vulnerabilities) of their followers to convince them that they have the solution. Messed up, but also, creepily, a lot like marketing.

Personalise Your Pitch

Effective sales comes from the bringing together of your own objectives and the value you can provide to an audience. Dale Carnegie’s seminal How to Win Friends and Influence People — a favourite of Manson — is a veritable treasure trove of charm tactics, many of which boil down to being nice to people and making them feel special. Find out what makes them tick by asking questions and letting them speak, then figure out how you can answer to this.

Make Some Noise

Once you’ve got these key vectors figured out and your artwork, network and channels aligned, you have to simply get out there and shout it from the rooftops. Use whatever you have, be it a rock n’ roll persona (a la Manson), a performative healing ritual (comme Jones) or a focus on deep, one-to-one connection (vis Gomez), and use your followers to find even more.

Marketing obviously doesn’t need to indoctrinate people, but it does revolve strongly around a belief system — in the people, product and processes we have on our side. Ritual and symbolism play heavily into the process, and boldness and vision are often strongly rewarded. Above all, it’s about the things we can give to others. The more we can see things from their point of view, the more we can find our niche. Soon we won’t have to push the brand, because people will do that for us. We want not just followers but advocates. And the way we do that is by treating people right.

If you'd like to keep up to date with all our blog posts, important and interesting stories in the worlds of theatre, arts and media, plus job ads and opportunities from our industry friends, sign up to our daily media briefing at this link.