Select a region
Economic Development and the Policy & Resources Committee are to invest £215,000 more to enable VisitGuernsey to capitalise on the UK and US digital and DVD release of the Guernsey film later this summer.
The States has already invested over £335,000 around the time of the theatrical release of the film in the UK and Europe, as well as to host the Guernsey Premiere.
This additional spend will come from the Future Guernsey Fund.
"The co-ordinated film marketing activities by film distributors, Studio Canal, and VisitGuernsey have generated an incredible amount of international awareness for Guernsey. Early indications suggest this activity is already paying dividends, with staying visitor numbers in April and May increasing by +3% and +14% respectively," Deputy Dawn Tindall, member of the committee, said.
Studio Canal now plans to invest heavily in a 2-week national advertising campaign to support the digital release of the film in the UK. The additional funds awarded by P&R will allow VisitGuernsey to go on air with TV and digital advertising, again co-ordinating with StudioCanal’s activity, with the message: ‘Visit the Island that inspired the film’.
Home video giant, Netflix, has secured the digital rights to the film in the US, offering a potential Guernsey film audience of 56 million subscribers.
The theatrical release itself of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society has also been deemed a success, with it achieving number two at the UK box office at its height, out-grossing such films as ‘Their Finest’, ‘Viceroy’s House’ and ‘A United Kingdom’ and rapidly approaching lifetime grosses of ‘Brooklyn’ and ‘Hidden Figures’.
Mike Hopkins, Director of Marketing & Tourism added:
“American holidaymakers are high spenders and present an attractive market for us to exploit, particularly as the book was a New York Times bestseller and so popular in the US. We are already co-ordinating promotional activities with American publishers, Random House, for the release of the film version of the book in North America. The additional budget will allow us to invest more heavily in promoting to the American market through trade and media partner activity to help attract increased numbers of these valuable holidaymakers to Guernsey”.
Comments
Comments on this story express the views of the commentator only, not Bailiwick Publishing. We are unable to guarantee the accuracy of any of those comments.