The Spanish town of Júzcar is probably better known by younger members of the world’s population – it was used as a backdrop during filming of 2011 movie The Smurfs.
The town, perched on the side of a hill in the country’s southern Malaga province, agreed to have every one of its buildings painted light blue last year for filming during product of the 3D computer animated film, as well as for use in its release publicity.
Pre-Smurf days, Júzcar used to attract just 300 tourists a year.
Inevitably, in the six months after the cosmetic surgery on the buildings, over 80,000 fans of the film and the curious have swept in to the town to take a look and wander around.
The town’s administrators and residents embraced the wave of Smurf-led madness that hit the city, hosting parties, activities and, err, weddings.
The film’s backer, Sony Pictures, had always promised that after filming the buildings would be returned to their original state, but a vote in the town before Christmas last year saw residents decide by 141 for to 33 against in favour of keeping the blue bonanza.
Perhaps Júzcar is happy with the current numbers visiting the town, but the post-film release euphoria of last summer will probably never be achieved again and therefore it should have considered how else it might market the town.
This is arguably where officials in the town have missed a trick.
After seeing what a clever bit of marketing could do to the Swiss village of Obermutten, perhaps a dedicated and highly decorated page on Facebook would have been a good idea?
Instead the town has an official and very dull fan page, leaving the only significant presence of the Smurf project on Facebook via a page set up by a visitor from last summer.
Whether this lack of so-called joined-up-thinking is the fault of the residents or regional tourism officials is another matter, but Júzcar has arguably missed out on a massive opportunity to open itself up to more potential visitors and Smurf-related frolics on the world’s busiest social network.
Yes, kids of a Smurf-loving age are not on Facebook, but their long-suffering parents probably are.
Here is a clip from the company that helped paint the town:
Related posts:
About Kevin May
The village was never used for filming. It was only used as a publicity stunt to promote the film.
@justin – oh, ok thx. Mixed reports on that, then. Cheers.