This week FITUR 2022 was celebrated and once again Spain Film Commission has collaborated in organising the FITUR Screen space.
In this space Film Madrid and Madrid Film Office organised a meeting entitled “Anúnciate Madrid” where the APCP was a collaborator.
The participants in this talk were Josep María Alhama (Business Travel Director – Bestours Group) – Nuria Santiago (Location Manager Zafarrancho) – and the moderator was Jaime Terol (Line Producer – Lee Films).
As an introduction, Jaime made a presentation of how advertising is as a business and what are the figures it moves.
He presented the following data extracted from the APCP Economic Study 2019:
457 million € turnover
56.4% – Spanish clients
43.6% – foreign clients
Travel and transport: 20,649,668 € (10.2%)
Locations: 19,512,270 € (9.4%)
Hospitality: 17,602,262 € (8.5%)
Accommodation: €13,344,101 (6.3%)
To start the conversation with the speakers, he gave another fact: of all the filming in the report, more than 40% took place in Madrid.
How attractive is Madrid?
Nuria pointed out that Madrid is a community that attracts filming. Zafarrancho does a lot of service and something that clients ask for the most is the possibility of filming in streets that look like their cities in the final result; New York, Paris…
Madrid has many locations with the capacity to respond to all these requests.
The only thing it doesn’t have is the beach, but even so, lakes and marshes can sometimes be the solution.
In addition to looking for places to shoot, clients are also looking to enjoy the time they spend there, and Madrid meets all the needs they demand.
Josep María spoke about how Madrid’s quality has positioned itself at the top level of hotels for its users. This has an impact on the attraction of international clients with high purchasing power. The impact is not only in terms of accommodation, but also as a client who consumes in restaurants, bars, shops, etc., giving life to the city. This movement helps the Community to differentiate itself from others in attracting more filming.
He pointed out that we are coming from a very difficult time for everyone as a result of the COVID and that the first industry to be reactivated during the pandemic was the advertising film industry. He was grateful that we had Travel Producers to make this possible.
During the conference, it was also highlighted that advertising films are another line of business for hotel and catering establishments.
Nuria explained that during the pandemic, a lot of filming has been done in hotel and catering establishments, as it was a very complicated situation because everything was closed, and they made it easier to film in them. This circumstance has established a closer link, making it easier to establish a more direct relationship. Now most of them already know our business, what it can bring them and there is mutual respect.
At the end of the meeting, the speakers talked about the fact that they detected an increase in prices in general, but particularly in private locations in Madrid. This would be a mistake because this situation puts at risk the attraction of filming and will cause them to leave or return to other cities.
Madrid is doing a lot of things right to attract business and filming, such as cheaper permits, agility and ease of procedures, it would be a big mistake to raise rates in the face of demand.
We have to find a balance, 2020 was difficult for everyone and we must not make a mistake in this and the speakers encouraged the Community of Madrid to continue supporting the industry as they do.
Jaime wanted to send a positive message to finish, and to thank the public institutions of the Community of Madrid that thanks to them have managed to shorten the deadlines of the procedures that make the shootings stay in the region, for the support received and all the facilities provided to shoot after the pandemic. He encouraged the rest of the municipalities in the region to join in and open up to our sector because there are locations with a lot of potential.
FITUR Screen has a great programme of activities and meetings, including a conference today at 11:30 in Pavilion 8 entitled “The filming industry ecosystem”, where APCP president Albert Soler will be present.
You can follow it online here.
