Dublin Fringe Festival is back this weekend (Sept 7-22), promising more than 500 trail-blazing performances across 29 venues while giving new and emerging artists a unique forum to push the boundaries of creativity and storytelling.
Relevant Insights
Founded in 1995, this is the 30th edition of Dublin Fringe Festival. Over three decades, the programme has offered a blank canvas to some of the most exciting new voices from Ireland and around the world, quickening the pulse of audiences and injecting fresh energy into Dublin’s cultural landscape.
Behind the eye-popping performances, Dublin Fringe Festival plays a vital role in fostering Irish creativity. The event offers support and resources to the independent artistic community, including year-round access to FRINGE LAB where artists can work, rehearse and develop.
In a city where many artist studios and creative community spaces are under pressure from surging costs and spiralling rents, the enduring appeal of Fringe is a reminder that creativity matters.
In addition to the economic boost – this year’s Fringe Festival is expected to draw more than 30,000 visitors – research has found that regular cultural and creative activities boost physical and emotional wellbeing, stimulate cultural dialogue, and make people proud of where they live.
These are fuzzy enough benefits, but instantly recognisable to anyone whose spirits are lifted by time spent in theatres, museums, cinemas, improv nights or other cultural venues. It makes us feel good. We can’t always say why, but it does. On a human level, creativity adds meaning and value to our lives.
PR parallels
PR has always been a creative business. Although we are also an industry of grafters – dogged, deadline-chasing multi-taskers – it is our ability to come up with new and surprising ideas that adds true value to what we do. Creativity is how we set ourselves, and our clients, apart from the competition.
This may come as a surprise! When it comes to creativity, the advertising industry has traditionally hogged the headlines – and the budgets – while PR is sometimes seen as its hardworking cousin. Where Mad Men was gorgeous, The Thick Of It was simply grubby.
However, creativity has always flowed through the PR industry, fuelling impactful campaigns and finding innovative solutions, even as the media ecosystem on which our business was founded has fragmented.
As an industry, we now operate in a very different market. The people who consume content – news, stories, posts, reels – don’t mind or sometimes even know whether that content is earned, shared, paid or owned. That means PR clients are not just competing for space with other brands, they are fighting for attention with Netflix and MrBeast.
Multi-channel campaigns
In this multi-channel environment, where ideas now have to work across different platforms, PR pros are tapping into new seams of creativity. And working even harder too – instead of doing it all ourselves, we now collaborate with a whole new cast of content-creators, digital marketers and communications specialists.
The creative evolution of PR has not gone unnoticed in brand-land. Last year’s Creativity in PR report, co-authored by PRovoke Media and Now Go Create, found that storytelling and content creation are the most important capabilities for brands looking for creative PR agencies (cited by 88% of respondents) ahead of influencer/thought leader relationships (67%), collaboration with owned, shared and paid media (63%), and media relations (53%).
As competitive pressure grows – from advertising and digital agencies especially – the report shows that clients are increasingly likely to approach their PR partner for creative services, with some 88% of respondents (agencies) confirming their agency has been designated as lead creative in the marketing mix.
In a complex industry where technology has changed the way we plan and execute campaigns, the ability to come up with new ideas is still one of the indispensable skills of PR. That spirit of pioneering creativity is also the beating heart of Dublin Fringe Festival, where imagination and hard graft go hand in hand.
If your brand has a communications challenge requiring a creative solution, we’d love to talk to you. Contact us today for a free PR consultation.
About the author
David Powell is a copywriter and content specialist with Cullen Communications