Another significant economic impact was a demand for Santa
Barbara County wines. Pinot noir sales worldwide spiked 30
percent, business for the vineyards featured in the film in-
creased by an average of 42 percent and the number of local
wineries has doubled since the movie's release.
In 2014, Visit Santa Barbara and Fox Searchlight worked to-
gether again on a 10-year anniversary celebration with a com-
memorative Blu-ray release with another integrated marketing
campaign. Win-win.
Santa Barbara's Sideways Effect
It was an independent film directed by Alexander Payne that
brought the term "effect" (by a movie) to tourism illustrating
that any production, no matter the size, can provide beneficial
economic impact to its locations. The Oscar-winning film Side-
ways follows the road trip through Central California coastal
wine country of a pair of friends celebrating the last days of
bachelorhood. The movie became an international hit and,
with the help of a well-thoughtout marketing campaign sup-
ported by director Alexander Payne and Fox Searchlight, tour-
ists from all over the globe flocked to the Santa Ynez Valley
for wine tours following the movie's path. At the same time,
area wine sales vastly increased worldwide with both effects
boosting the local economy. This impact from the film became
known as the "Sideways Effect," generating a model for suc-
cessful economic impact strategy in conjunction with location
filming.
Fox Searchlight partnered with Visit Santa Barbara to coordi-
nate marketing campaigns in conjunction with the film's PR
and marketing cycles and the visitors bureau had packaged
tour content to accommodate the increase in domestic and in-
ternational travelers by the home entertainment release. Key
locations in the film benefited from their promotions generat-
ing more tour packages with one hotel even branding them-
selves as the Sideways Inn. Visit Santa Barbara developed a
location map with images from the film and scene descriptions
for each location as well as a one-day itinerary that is still cur-
rently available on their website. Additional Sideways wine
tours can also be found online.
Photos courtesy of 20th Century Fox
