RAF Benevolent Fund launch social media drama to re-enact Battle of Britain
Reading Room, in partnership with the RAF Benevolent Fund, has conceived and produced a social media campaign to target a new generation of supporters and raise funds.
The campaign commemorates the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain. Between June and September the RAF Benevolent Fund will bring five fictional characters to life through daily blogs and via live engagement with followers on Twitter.
The characters include a Hurricane pilot, a radar operator, a plane mechanic, a nurse and a journalist. Each of the characters will provide a personal account, full of drama and intertwining plots, conjured up through carefully written and historically accurate copy.
The story will reflect the lives of those who lived through the Battle of Britain - the fear, the sorrow the hope and the excitement. Reading Room commissioned writer Kevin Telfer (author of Peter Pan’s First XI), who worked closely with the RAF Benevolent Fund, to write the campaign content.
The characters stories unfold against the backdrop of the Battle of Britain in the summer of 1940, cleverly re-created by Reading Room through an online newspaper www.1940chronicle.com which will break daily headline stories, in real time,as if the battle was unfolding before us today in 2010.
The RAFBF is using the 70th Anniversary as an opportunity to celebrate the exploits of the pilots and other RAF personnel during the Battle of Britain, and raise awareness of the charity’s contemporary work with serving and past servicemen and women.
Dean Benton, RAFBF director of marketing and communications, said: “We are absolutely delighted to have partnered with Reading Room and to harness the power of social media in such a unique and effective way. We hope the campaign will bring home the impact of conflict on serving personnel and their families and the need for an organisation like the RAF Benevolent Fund – both in 1940 and still today in 2010.”
Margaret Manning, CEO of Reading Room said: “The emergence of social media channels offers huge opportunities for charities to have conversations with their audiences, and the 1940’s Chronicle campaign is a perfect example of how this can be achieved. We’re extremely proud to be part of such a unique and exciting campaign."