Samenvatting

This report provides a concise interpretation of the findings concerning expats as a new target audience for Movies that Matter Festival in The Hague, the Netherlands. For a communication professional in the film industry it is important to have clear objectives - in the case of Movies that Matter Festival, it is growth in the number of visitors and diversity in their audience. This report reveals surprising prospects and many opportunities in the future for Movies that Matter Festival to sell more tickets to visitors from different cultural backgrounds. The conclusion of this report is based on desk research, an audience survey and qualitative research done by interviewing professionals in the field of expat media. Chapter 8 contains the complete recommendations based on the research. Firstly, the population in The Hague consists of many minority groups with different cultural backgrounds and languages. The various minorities are from Suriname, Dutch Antilles, Morocco and Turkey, as in any other large cities in the Netherlands. Due to the English orientation of the Movies that Matter festival, various minority groups may not understand or appreciate most of the programmed films and debates, because of the language barrier. Another possible problem would be the lower income level of such groups and their willingness to spend it on a human rights festival ticket. Naturally, there are some very inspired minority individuals that do participate in such cultural events and don't have a language barrier, however, these individuals constitute a small group and therefore are not a valuable market for the marketing communication department of Movies that Matter Festival. A more affluent population group to consider is international professionals living in The Hague, who are called 'expats', or according to some expat media organizations, 'international residents', as some foreigners do not want to be labeled as an 'expat'. These expats who are staying (sometimes temporarily for only 2-3 years) in the Netherlands are a group of individuals or families from different backgrounds, but with common interests and features. This group is interesting, in particular, as they perfectly connect with the festival's culture of eye-opening films with widespread global themes in the unifying English language. Targeting this group of potential visitors for the festival may be a great opportunity for it to grow, as there are assumingly more than 150.000 expats living in The Hague and Amsterdam together. This assumption has to be made because there are no official data kept in the records of the municipality of The Hague. However, it is a fact that 14,000 employees work in international organizations as servants of peace, justice and human rights.