Sony Pictures: THE SMURF VILLAGE

Credits & Description:

Type of entry: Use of Promo & Activation

Category: Best Use of Experiential Marketing in a Promotional Campaign

Advertiser: SONY PICTURES RELEASING

Product/Service: THE SMURFS 3D MOVIE

Agency: BUNGALOW25 Madrid, SPAIN

Advertiser SONY PICTURES RELEASING

Product THE SMURFS 3D MOVIE

Entrant BUNGALOW25 Madrid, SPAIN

Type of Entry: Use of Promo & Activation

Category: Best Use of Experiential Marketing in a Promotional Campaign

Title: THE SMURF VILLAGE

Advertiser/Client: SONY PICTURES RELEASING

Product/Service: THE SMURFS 3D MOVIE

Entrant Company: BUNGALOW25 Madrid, SPAIN

DM/Advertising Agency: BUNGALOW25 Madrid, SPAIN



Executive Creative Director: Pablo Pérez-Solero (Bungalow25)

Executive Creative Director: Julio Gálvez (Bungalow25)

Account Supervisor: Cristina Montero (Bungalow25)

Account Executive: Sara Telechea (Bungalow25)



Describe the brief from the client

To launch 'The Smurfs 3D Movie' we converted a 2,000 years old white town into the first Smurf village in the world.









Describe the creative solution to the brief/objective.







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. But… what if one of them turns out to be the perfect platform to develop an advertising campaign? 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.









Describe the results in as much detail as possible.







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. We’ve got free media coverage worth more than €6m only in Spain and €19m all around the world (and it´s still growing). ‘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.









We wanted 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 house in the village in Smurf blue, even the church and the graveyard, using more than 10,000 litres of paint, 50 painters, including all the unemployed people of the village, to convert Júzcar into the first village to change entirely in colour to promote and launch ‘The Smurfs 3D Movie’.