Organic Connection Between DMO's and Film Production

As is customary in many communities, DCVB is responsible for the Durham Film Office. But it became clear during a recent conversation with some vendors listed in the DCVB Directory of Durham Film Services, that many may not realize the organic connection between destination marketing and film development.

Here are just a handful of reasons why this connection creates synergy:

• DMO’s like DCVB maintain comprehensive image libraries of their community so it is just a small additional step to post these and other potential film locations in a searchable database for use by location scouts.
  
  
• DMO’s like DCVB have the obligation to generate and update comprehensive inventories of business services of all types and to be a liaison to get them in front of customers. Services for film productions are no different.
  
  
• The bottom line for bringing feature films, commercials shoots, documentaries, etc., to a community is the same reasons for bringing visitors, group tours, sports events, meetings and conventions: to fuel the business climate and generate taxable spending.
  
  
• Part of leveraging the benefit of a film is promoting locations to visitors with interest in films.
  
  
• The services provided to a film company are much the same as they are for meetings, events and groups, mainly helping them to identify sites and services, providing media and community alerts, and serving as a liaison with local government to help facilitate permits.
  
  
• Computing and tracking economic impact and measuring performance against benchmarks is as important to film promotion as it is to every other aspect of visitor marketing.
  
  
• Branding or developing community image is an important part of film promotion and obviously the expertise of the community’s marketing agency so a DMO is again a natural.
  

There are other connections but suffice it to say, there’s no more qualified and related organization to spearhead film promotion for a community.