I’ve come to the conclusion that the popular television comedy, Benidorm, has probably done more for tourism for Benidorm than their own tourism office.
In the past, I have talked about how ‘story’ can generate sales and that the film Top Gun did more for US Navy recruitment than anything they had done themselves.
Not only that, the film featured Ray Ban sunglasses and their sales shot up by 30% in 1984 when the film hit the cinemas.
Stories are powerful tools when it comes to selling because you can sell products, services, and places without actually doing any selling.
There are 74 episodes of the show spanning ten series including Christmas specials and it has been filmed in and around several locations including popular tourist hotspots.
The show has been filmed at:
- The water park.
- A mediaeval entertainment centre.
- Sea front walks.
- The beach.
- Several restaurants and bars.
- Attractive old back streets.
- A Roman entertainment park.
- Waterfalls and natural pools.
- The Benidorm Palace.
- A go-cart track.
- Cliff tops.
- Local villages.
- An old bull fighting ring.
Anyone who has never been to Benidorm can easily get a sense of what the place is like and what it has to offer.
The show will have motivated many families to go there for a holiday… it may also have motivated a few to stay away too.
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People are different and so where some will find it appealing, others will find it off-putting preferring to go somewhere less ‘British’ in favour of something more authentically Spanish and less ‘tacky’.
What is interesting is that the show is apparently also popular in Germany and the Netherlands. A lot of Germans and Dutch go to Benidorm for their holidays too.
I have to wonder, are those who watch the show in Germany and the Netherlands similar types to the British who go to Benidorm, or do they watch it for a laugh and think that all the British are like the dysfunctional families on the show?
With Benidorm, Bargain Brits In The Sun, and Brexit, I dread to think what our European friends think of us!
I so hope they don’t think that we are all alike, although, saying that, not all of the families are the same on the show.
Anyway, I digress a little.
The point I am trying to make is that it is easier to sell products, services, and places when you clothe them in ‘stories’.
People have no idea that they are being sold to when they are enjoying a story. They see and hear things and ‘make’ decisions through ‘freewill’… or so they think.
Do you think it was an accident that Ray Ban glasses were used in the film, Top Gun?
No, like most products seen in films and television shows, they pay a premium to be featured because they know that it will result in a lot of sales.
The people who make those ‘freewill decisions’ are actually motivated and persuaded to do so.
The truth is, they didn’t make a decision between several different brands of the same product; they made a decision based on only seeing one… one which was purposely put in front of them.
Remember that when trying to sell products of your own… use story and only show potential customers what you want them to see.
A fantastic way to get stories in front of people is to publish a newsletter.
Not only can you publish a newsletter for free… people will pay you to receive and read your newsletters.
A fantastic platform to publish newsletters for free from is Substack.
Substack allows you to charge for your newsletters and will process the payments for you, and get this… the top ten writers on the platform collectively make over £15 million per year!
There are over 500,000 paying subscribers on the platform, who wouldn’t want a piece of that?
Discover more about Substack here:
Why You Should Consider Publishing A Newsletter With Substack
Kind regards.
John Harrison.
PS… People are flocking to Substack to read newsletters because unlike websites, they are not drenched in advertising. The pages are clean, fast to load and easy to read… now is the time to check it out.
Here’s that link again: