Guernsey’s Committee for Economic Development (CfED) and the Policy & Resources Committee are to invest a further £215,000 of budget from the Future Guernsey Fund to enable Marketing and Tourism (VisitGuernsey) to capitalise on the UK digital and DVD/Blu-ray release of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society film later this Summer, as well as the national release of the film in the USA on Netflix.
The States has already invested over £335,000 to capitalise on the theatrical release of the film in the UK and Europe, as well as to support the hosting of filmmakers and cast for a special Guernsey premiere. The additional £215,000 budget will be used to exploit the opportunity presented by the UK and US digital home release.
The cinema release has been a success, with the film 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’.
Deputy Dawn Tindall said:
“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”.
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.
Mike Hopkins, Director of Marketing & Tourism commented:
“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”.
