Considering that the financial success or failure of any show at Edinburgh's Festival Fringe can depend heavily on a producer's promotional skills, it's perhaps surprising that it has taken this long for the Edinburgh International Marketing Festival to discover itself.
The cynic might say that's no surprise. With the internet awash with self-proclaimed marketing experts, is "a celebration of the marketing industry" really necessary? But then Edinburgh's Festivals are all about live events, and the world's largest performing arts festival provides a great backdrop for such a pow wow.
Both the Television Festival and some industry events at the Edinburgh Film Festival cover similar themes on the subjects of viral marketing, social media, and networking, but there's nothing that deals squarely with marketing.
Cross-fertilisation of festivals is probably a good thing in this day and age. As well as overlapping with the TV Festival dates, the EIMF carries like-minded events in its inaugural programme from the Edinburgh Book Festival: Nicholas Carr (28th) will be answering his own provocating question "Is the Internet making us stupid?", rock promoter Barry Miles gives a presentation on London counterculture, and video games expert Tom Chatfield is in conversation with Pat Kane.
Big, broad issues in the marketing industry will be tackled in the first two days by key organisations behind the event.
On day 1, the Marketing Society heads a day of events looking at whether maximising profits and corporate and social responsibility are mutually exclusive, with a message from HRH Prince Charles exhorting attendees to adapt their marketing or there will be no future "for you, your organisation or your planet."
On day 2, marketing portal creativebrief tries to anticipate trends in the future of branding, current thought on branding music, and community building and social responsibility. Among the speakers is Thomas Gensemer of Blue State Digital, the agency that helped Obama raise $500 million online during his presidential election campaign.
Among other events, local agency the Union is offering tours of its premises during the fest, and creativity expert Andy Green heads a ‘One Man Pecha Kucha’ Show - the equivalent of a creativity, home-visit doctor service using 7 seven minute long presentations in the Pecha Kucha (Japanese for ‘chit chat’) format - each consisting of 20 Powerpoint slides each showing for 20 seconds.
Ticket prices vary for events.