This week at Bradley O’Mahoney
OUR FOCUS: Lights! Camera! Location!
Last week we looked at the mutual benefits of collaboration between the Academy Awards and fashion designers. Continuing on the theme this week, we’re looking at a different kind of partnership which has the potential to market bonnie Scotland to the rest of the world!
Announced in marketing magazine The Drum this week, a global marketing campaign promoting Scottish tourism is to be based around the launch of Disney/Pixar’s forthcoming animated film, ‘Brave’, about the adventures of red-headed Scot, Merida.
VisitScotland’s £7m campaign will be its biggest yet and the first time that Disney has linked up with a country’s tourism organisation on such a scale.
The deal will see global cross-promotion via TV and cinema advertising, social media and other PR events, aimed at promoting both the film and the stunningly beautiful Scottish locations around which it is based.
Of course, if it’s a success, it will not be the first time a film has had an impact on its location. From 2000 to 2006 the annual tourist influx to New Zealand jumped from 1.7 million to 2.4 million. This 40 percent surge has largely been attributed to ‘The Lord of the Rings’ (LOTR) phenomenon. The popular fantasy trilogy was shot on location across New Zealand’s two islands. It not only acted as a fantastic advertisement for the country but led to additional revenue from tours and dedicated museums.
Interestingly, the impact of this boost became a major talking point when the decision was being made on where to film the LOTR prequel, The Hobbit. At one point it looked that New Zealand would lose the filming rights and locals were happy to see it go rather than spend the estimated $25m dollars it took to eventually retain the rights.
It wasn’t until economists at New Zealand’s largest bank, ANZ-National, estimated that the predicted revenue increase from the film could be as much as $1.5 billion dollars, that the New Zealand Prime Minister John Key stepped in and resolved the issues to ensure the country retained the project.
Whether Brave has such an impact remains to be seen but we applaud VisitScotland and Pixar on their complementary collaboration and look forward to seeing the results.
Headline of the week:
The world’s most popular body part …“Angelina Jolie’s right leg gains 11,000 Twitter followers” (Radio Times, 28 February 2012)
FINALLY: Charitable giving at its best
Every so often a story comes along that puts a big smile on your face, and this is just such a tale.
Given the current furore over questionable behaviour by newspapers, we were particularly happy to read the comments by German editor, Henning Noske.
Extract from The Sun, 02 March 2012:
“A CITY is alive with excitement after a mystery benefactor started sending white envelopes stuffed with £8,000 in cash to good causes.
So far 20 have been posted through the doors of charities and victims of crime around Braunschweig, Germany.
All have been accompanied by a local newspaper cutting featuring the recipient, sparking speculation a Robin Hood-style do-gooder could be in their midst.
One windfall was sent to the family of a 14-year-old boy called Tom who was severely disabled in a swimming accident.
His mum Claudia Neumann, said: “I was driving when I heard the news.
“I had to park on the side of the road, I was speechless.
“For someone to act so selflessly, for this to happen in such an individualist society in which everyone thinks of himself, was astonishing.”
So far the city’s benefactor has doled out some £160,000 in long white envelopes. Some were simply posted through doors but one was found in the pages of a church hymn book and another was placed under a hospice’s doormat.
Newspaper editor, Henning Noske, has asked people not to try to identify the person responsible in case it stops the donations.
