All publicity materials for shows at any Underbelly venue at the Edinburgh Festival should be submitted to us for approval, but here are some guidelines to what we expect or what we think is best to help sell your show.

Production copy

Joint venue brochure
You should send 60 words describing your show together with a graphic image . This is done through our submissions website, the details of which will be forwarded to you after acceptance of an offer. The programme image will be printed with a maximum dimension of around 6cm so use an image that will look fine at smaller sizes. The image should be in high-quality JPEG format with a resolution of 300dpi, ie at least 800x800 pixels, in portrait orientation. (subject to change).

Due to strict copy deadlines for printing the brochure to allow for full distribution, all copy and images or the venue brochure must be submitted by 16 April 2008.

Underbelly website
We will use the same copy and image on our website as we use in the venue brochure. You will be able to make changes to the website at any time by emailing marina@underbelly.co.uk with details of the requested changes. We will make these changes as soon as reasonably practicable, but we can only promise to prioritise changes if existing information is actually incorrect.

Approval of publicity materials

WE MUST PROOF YOUR PUBLICITY BEFORE IT GOES TO PRINT AS PER THE UNDEBELLY RULES AND YOUR CONTRACT.
For Edinburgh 2008, we will proof publicity (i.e. posters, flyers and adverts) up until 2 July 2008 only and please allow at least THREE working days for approval. We must see all publicity before it goes to print so please ensure that it reaches us before this date. There are to be no exceptions to this rule.

EAE Distribution

However, if you are planning on using EAE (www.eae.co.uk) for your publicity distribution, you will need to have your publicity proofs to us by the following dates in order for us to proof them in time for you to make the relevant EAE distribution dates as detailed below.

For EAE to distribute: 27th June  2008

Posters, flyers and adverts

These must contain as a minimum: the relevant Underbelly logo for your venue (ie Smirnoff Underbelly, Baby Belly, E4 Udderbelly Pasture).
If you are in Smirnoff Underbelly or Smirnoff Baby Belly, a statement that "Smirnoff is the sponsor of the Underbelly and not any of the shows performing there"
, information on performance dates, times, venue name and number (see below) and address.

Ticket prices and performance space are optional at your discretion.

You must not alter the Underbelly logos by rearranging any of the elements or changing any of the colours. Various versions of the logo are available for download. Please comply with the usage guidelines on the download page. Please note Logos are being updated for 2008 usage.

There is no minimum size for our logo, but it must be clearly legible on all your publicity materials.

You should allow 3,000 flyers and 100 posters for the Underbelly press office for placing around the venue, on top of any you want for your other methods of distribution. Don’t go crazy though, think of the planet! Each year it is necessary for us to dump thousands of wasted flyers and posters.

Venue Numbers

Our venue numbers are as follows. These are not essential but handy to have on all your publicity material as they correlate with the Fringe Guide.

Smirnoff Underbelly, 56 Cowgate: Venue 61
(entrances on Cowgate and Victoria Street)
Baby Belly: Niddry St Sth: Venue 88
E4 Udderbelly's Pasture: Bristo Square: Venue 300

Press releases

These should really be kept to one A4 page if at all possible as busy journalists will not get to page 2. It should clearly state the name of the show, the company and the venue at the top. We would suggest that you include one summary sentence on each of the show, the company and any special angle or connection that the show has. This gives journalists something to reproduce in the review as general background without them having to summarise a longer paragraph further down. It should also give dates and times of all performances.

You should also give a contact name and number of the person who is responsible for publicity in your company. You should also give the name and number of our Press and Marketing Manager.

You should NOT put photos in the press release as this will significantly increase the file size and download time. If you have good photos in electronic format that could be sent, state in the press release that these are available and where they can be obtained (eg website for download or person to call/email)

We will include your press release(s) on our website if you send them to us at press@underbelly.co.uk. However to be included on our website they MUST meet the following criteria:

PDF format only - NOT Word (if you do not have Acrobat yourself, you can convert your Word or other document by going to createpdf.adobe.com and using their FREE online converter)
No more than 100 kb in size (we have to fit over 100 of them onto our website!) If you have graphics/pictures in your press release this may cause the file size to increase. Please either reduce the size and/or resolution of the graphics or remove them entirely.

Publicity photos

If you have a good publicity photo, then send us a SEPARATE JPEG file. Do not include it in the press release.

If a paper wants a photo to accompany a review, they often ask if we have a photo we can email, so please send a high quality graphic (ie 300dpi) of a sensible size to accompany a review. The deadlines are very tight and so if we do not have a photo available at the time of the request, it may already be too late by the time we have tracked you down.