We love a deadline, and few things have as obvious a deadline as an actual event.
Aberdeen Jazz Festival 2026 was an absolute corker to get involved in. It’s a great example of why we love providing PR and media support for events, festivals and short-term campaigns.
The festival is run by Jazz Scotland and is one of the city’s main cultural events. Last year, it was preparing for its 23rd year in the city with a programme spanning 11 days – with over 30 events across 18 venues – when they got in touch with Hoolet.
The specific request was for assistance with PR and media. Their key challenge was news that the closure of “the iconic Blue Lamp”, a main venue for the festival, had translated into a rumour bounding around the city that the festival was close to cancellation.
They also wanted to get past the perception that jazz meant smoky clubs with men in shirtsleeves and fedoras.
So the Hoolet remit was to raise awareness of the event and encourage local residents to find out more. It was about increasing engagement and boosting ticket sales.
Of course, it was ultimately all about attendance – bums on seats matter.
Tight timescale
The jazz hands were ticking round the clockface. We started working with the festival organisers in January, with the main festival kicking off on 12 March. That meant a tight 10-week timescale for three separate bursts of publicity.
First up was the strategy of establishing key messages that trumpeted (sorry) the hugely positive things about the festival, while countering both misconceptions and preconceptions.
Our key message – it’s a high quality, varied and accessible 10-day festival with 35 concerts, with something for everyone from hip-hop to Latin spectaculars to trad jazz.
We then carved out three media releases and photocalls, identifying discrete hooks for each, all with a strong visual element that included interview and filming opportunities. We needed to keep interest building in the run-up to the main event with a focus on media relations.
What we did
1. Event publicity with the main launch
January was pressing go, confirming all concerts were all live and bookable through the dedicated Aberdeen Jazz Festival website.
The release went out under embargo with a photocall in Union Terrace Gardens to make the most of the huge Hollywood-style Aberdeen sign – especially useful for national coverage.
We also took images in the Victorian Toilets to go out to those who couldn’t attend, a legendary Aberdeen location recently renovated as a cool acoustically interesting venue.
Key message: Aberdeen Jazz Festival is on, choose your jazz, buy your tickets. We focused on the city centre angle, counteracting the effect of the closure of the Blue Lamp with news of exciting new venues.
2. Tuba in the baths heats up festival PR
February’s release led on Aberdeen Jazz Festival’s “warm welcome”, tying into cost of living concerns. Along with a pledge to offer something to appeal to everyone, it revealed the festival’s host of live and low-cost musical experiences.
The unusual venue chosen was the city’s historic Bon Accord Baths where tuba player Danielle Price was taking part in a series of free Soundbath concerts, alongside news of other free performances and favourites for a fiver.
Key message: Aberdeen Jazz Festival is on, choose your jazz, buy your tickets. We focused on the city centre angle, counteracting the effect of the closure of the Blue Lamp with news of exciting new venues.
3. Campaign publicity ... Encore
This release was on the eve of the festival kicking off in March, with the aim of keeping it front of mind.
We needed to make sure the public knew that now was the time to go, this is it, this is the day – no regrets if they missed it!
It was angled on the sell-out success of new venues so far, with Jazz Scotland CEO John Youngs front and centre at a grand piano in another new venue, Encore Aberdeen.
Key message: Aberdeen Jazz Festival is finally here. Go now or miss out. One to try is the popular Jazz the Day City event that weekend with one ticket giving access to four venues, and a full afternoon of music in the heart of Aberdeen.
PR and media success
There was huge enthusiasm from all sorts of platforms to carry the news across the city and beyond.
- The Press & Journal picked up news of each opportunity, with tuba player Danielle making the front page
- STV came along to cover the launch, making the evening news programme with an impromptu live jazz performance in Union Terrace Gardens (click in the image below to watch the report)
- POST Aberdeen, an online outlet that celebrates Aberdeen’s creative community, carried in-depth interviews with performers and devoted a whole issue of its newsletter to the festival
- Our Union Street podcast featured interviews, as did Aberdeen Open for Business
- Funding partners Aberdeen City Council and Creative Scotland carried content on their channels as well as fantastic support from Aberdeen Inspired and Visit Aberdeenshire
- Social content from the media calls kept circulating in the 10-week run-up, with over 30,000 views on the festival’s own Meta channels alone
Event campaign results
- The publicity attracted an extra 600 visitors through the doors from the previous year – a 25% increase in attendance
- There was also a 20% increase in ticket sale revenue, compared to 2025
What we learned – top three points
- Use your network – we mentioned Open For Business, Our Union Street, Aberdeen City Council and Creative Scotland as well as fab support from Aberdeen Inspired and Visit Aberdeenshire. They were happy to support but they do need to know what you’re doing before they can tell others.
- Find your tribe – and get them moving (to the beat). A great example is the support we got from POST Aberdeen, who were talking to one of our main target audiences, so this benefitted both sides with great content and great coverage.
- Remember to maximise everything across your owned channels, as well as earned and paid – Aberdeen Jazz Festival was great at using video content, highlight reels, stories and stand-out images across their own channels, thanks to intern Emily from Aberdeen University.
We’d like to thank the Aberdeen Jazz Festival team – special shout out to John and Ana – for their enthusiasm and persuasive powers. We managed to cover nearly every eventuality whether audio, TV coverage, photography, podcast guests, interviews and official quotes, music…
We’re also immensely grateful for the talent of Derek and Ross from Newsline, which made sure we had amazing visual collateral from each of the media calls.
- Aberdeen Jazz Festival has been running since 2004, promoting musicians from over 25 countries, holding a special place for Scottish jazz musicians and audiences. It is supported by Creative Scotland and Aberdeen City Council and is produced by Jazz Scotland, which as an organisation is committed to developing ethical community programmes where projects are co-produced with local groups to meet their specific musical needs and desires.
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