Children’s Air Ambulance ‘Leading Lights’ Event
Driving donor relations in the South West: ‘Leading Lights’ Event
The Childrens’ Air Ambulance (CAA) is a national charity transporting sick children to specialist hubs across the country. The charity approached YS with a brief to help grow brand presence and brand sentiment in the South West.
The CAA is well known in the Midlands and North of England, but awareness was lower in the South West, and people didn’t have a clear understanding of the charity’s work. As well as offering transportation to specialist hubs, the CAA can fly medical teams and bespoke equipment to children from across the UK, turning their local hospital into a specialist centre.
Prior to the launch of a new donor recruitment drive in the South West, the CAA wanted to establish themselves in the region, and spread the word about the work they do around the UK.
THE PLAN
The CAA came to us with the brief to help organise a VIP ‘Leading Lights’ event, to attract influencers and potential donors from Bristol and across the South West. The event would be relatively selective – targeted key business leaders and influential people in the region -, and it would be focussed on awareness raising and relationship building as opposed to hard fundraising.
Our Tactics
Securing exclusive use of The Clifton Observatory, we created a guest list of business people, local politicians, and key people from across the South West. We also invited local press, bloggers, and influencers to share their experiences of the evening on core regional news and blog sites.
The event was focussed around celebrating the best of Bristol’s food and drink, to underline CAA’s knowledge of the region and to provide attendees with a compelling reason to attend. Alongside the food and drink tasking, attendees could find out more about the CAAs vital work.
The evening featured a schedule with inspirational speakers including paediatric care expert Colin Veal, blind tastings from luxury chocolatier Zara’s Chocolates and guided beer tasting from the founder of Bristol craft brewery Wiper and True.
YS designed the guest list, secured attendees, suppliers and finalised the schedule. We also created biographies of each guest attending the event, providing CAA fundraisers with the background information they needed in order to work the room and make successful connections.
our results
Attendance
The team delivered a hugely successful event with attendance from individuals across a range of industries, as well as key influencers and politicians across the South West.
Relationships
YS developed a list of opted-in, high earning, influential people happy to be contacted again by the CAA follow up team to generate meaningful relationships.
Coverage
We secured coverage on leading regional lifestyle blogs and news sites, sharing images of the event and links to the CAA website.
Overall, the Leading Lights event gave the CAA a much needed kick-start in the region to raise awareness, grow both their brand presence and brand sentiment in the South West, start positive conversations with potential donors, and engage employers for corporate support.
