Poreč with 7.5 Million Viewers
When the Musikantenstadl show, a grand music and entertainment program on Austrian Television's ORF2 channel aired on Saturday, May 7th, a postcard from Poreč reached seven and a half million viewers in Austria, Germany and Switzerland, the number of viewers it is estimated that Musikantenstadl has in those countries.
In its thirty-year history of travelling to cities across Austria, Germany and Switzerland, this entertainment spectacle has never been outside of these three German-speaking countries so that the visit to Poreč was also a great reward for the show's hosts, namely the City of Poreč, the tourism companies Riviera Poreč and Plava Laguna as well as the Tourism Board of the City of Poreč.
The show's live filming was watched by two thousand Austrian and German guests who came to Poreč specifically to watch the filming of one of the most popular musical shows in the German-speaking world.
The show's filming required that Žatika be equipped with extravagant lighting, a number of video-walls and an impressive 60 metre stage in the shape of a wooden cabin with room-stages for the performances of singers and dance groups. The enormous production team included over 150 people who worked to prepare the event for more than two weeks. The sound production was excellent, while the orchestra pit had tables for 800 people which filled the space up beautifully. The rest of the audience was located in the packed southern stands. Prices for tickets ranged from € 60 to € 160 and were sold for the main evening event but also for the general rehearsal whose audience was almost as large as the one for the main event.
From the perspective of the tourism sector, the positive gains from this spectacle are numerous and far-reaching. Other than the fact that about two thousand people visited the city for the show and accounted for between 4.5 and 5 thousand overnight stays, Poreč was also very well advertised to the show's German-speaking viewers throughout the duration of the show itself.
The show's star, Andy Borg ""sailed"" into the show with a 5 minute music video filmed completely on Poreč's seashore. During the show, which aired in prime time between 8 pm and 10 pm, two other videos filmed in various locations in Poreč were also shown, one showing the old city, Euphrasiana and on the waterfront and the Island of St. Nikola...
In addition, with a short animation Poreč's location was shown on a map of Europe in relation to well-known Venice. Marketing strategy experts have said that this is an excellent manoeuvre which is very difficult to purchase and represents an important bonus for the proliferation of Poreč on the enormous German and Austrian markets.
During the two-hour show Poreč was mentioned more than thirty times in addition to mentioning Istria and Croatia. The filming was also followed by forty foreign journalists.
Over the next few days the Tourism Board is expecting press clipping, an analysis of the media publicity linked to Musikantenstadl, but what is sure is that through television, newspaper and internet ads for the event, Poreč has received advertisement with a value of at least € 1.5 million, which could not have been paid for in the least if classical advertising methods had been used.
In the end, something happened which nobody had hoped for or known - the Austrian team decided to use their time in Poreč to film additional footage in the city and throughout Istria. The videos that result will be used in a special edition of ""The Best of"" Musikantenstadl!
Along with five live programs, a sixth ""Best of the Best"" program is aired at the end of the year. Including Poreč and Istria in the ""Best of"" edition shall markedly increase the popular show's tourism spill-over not only for Poreč, but also for Istria and Croatia.
Numerous German-speaking stars performed live during the filming in Žatika - German star Andrea Berg, Austrian songwriter Nik P., Duo Fantasy, the cult Austrian band Die Zillertaler and many others, and it is interesting to note that among them was Bobby Rosso, who has Macedonian roots but is from Poreč and built his musical career in Germany. Pula's Cultural-Artistic Group ""Uljanik"" also performed as special guests to the spectacular show.
The who had a positive effect on bookings around Poreč including Novigrad and Vrsar, and the filming of short clips for the ""Best of"" show are a significant advertisement for all of Istria.
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