Agency (city): Bungalow25. Madrid Photographer(s): Ana Alfaro Agency Producer(s): Almudena Serrano Executive Creative Director: Pablo Perez-Solero, Julio Galvez Account Supervisor: Cristina Montero Account Executive: Sara Telechea Coordinator: Fernando Fernandez Short explanationFor the launch of the Movie “the Smurfs 3D”, with a low budget, we needed to do something very special: an action that generates millions of conversations about the product, which touch the heart of the people and for its originality receive one of the largest media coverage of the year. DescriptionFor the launch of the Movie “the Smurfs 3D”, with a low budget, we needed to do something very special: an action that generates millions of conversations about the product, which touch the heart of the people and for its originality receive one of the largest media coverage of the year. There are 1.500 white towns in Spain, scattered throughout the country, most of them situated in Andalucía.
Many of them are hidden in remote places and are almost unknown.
After visiting and talking with more than 300 villages we found the perfect location: Júzcar. A small village with less than 400 inhabitants in the mountain range of Ronda that - like the Smurfs - had a long tradition in the mushroom world. Our objective: to create a relevant story around the village and its relation with The Smurfs in order to gain the highest media coverage and awareness.
To that end, we painted every houses of the village in Smurfs blue, even the church and the graveyard, using more than 10.000 liters of paint, for convert Júzcar into the first village that change entirely the color promoting a movie and carry out there “The Smurfs 3D Movie” premier. What comes later and the repercussion is history.
To get an idea, this village was visited in summer by more or less 300 people, but only during the months of July and August of this year was visited by over 50.000 tourists from around the world.
Los Angeles Times proposed it as one of the most curious tourist destinations in the summer.
The international airline Jet2.com increases their promotion of its flights to Malaga with the incentive of visiting the Smurfs village.
"The GDP of the region grew up to 7% despite the crisis scenario", autonomic minister said, "thanks to Júzcar and the initiative of the Smurf Village."
The media impact was so strong that even one of the questions in the famous Spanish TV quizz show "Catch a Million" in prime time, was “what’s the name of a Spanish village that is totally painted in blue?”
We’ve got a free media coverage worth (ROI) for more than 2.800.000 € only in Spain (and it’s still growing) More than 200 TV appearances national and international.
More than 1.500 press articles all over the world.
Hundreds of appearances in local and national radio.
More than 10.000 blogs picked up the news and made thousands of comments.
More than 500.000 people on Twitter share information related to the village. And what is more important: “The Smurfs 3D Movie” has been the best Sony Pictures release of the year in Spain and the unemployed people of the village have been hired by the painting company indefinitely.
What was supposed to be one-week event has become a social, cultural and tourist worldwide phenomenon that crosses the advertising barrier.
Nowadays Júzcar is still painted in blue, who knows if it’s going to be forever… Spain and much of the people around the world knows it as the Smurfs Village. | 
