The RNLI is promoting its Mayday fundraising campaign, which runs throughout May, by turning UK icons, including a classic Post Office phone box, yellow, the colour of the emergency kit its volunteer lifesavers wear.
Yesterday (May 1st or May Day) it was the turn of an iconic old style telephone box on the banks of the river Thames outside London’s City Hall. Passers-by could go inside and pick up the phone to hear real life rescue stories. The experience was designed to give participants an insight into what it really means to be a lifesaving volunteer responding to a call for help and encourage them to ‘do their bit and fund our kit’ and help to raise funds to keep RNLI volunteers safe and dry on the water.
In Wales, Criccieth Castle will be turned yellow after dark tomorrow (May 3rd) with special lighting, while the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth has been lit yellow since April 27th and will remain so until tomorrow
Across the UK, the public are being challenged to come up with inventive ways to fundraise, from cycling, swimming and baking to donning their brightest yellow at work or school. All money raised will go to fund vital new kit to help courageous volunteer lifeboat crews save lives.
In 2017 crews launched 8,436 times, aiding 8,072 people. RNLI London lifeboat crews alone launched 697 times, aiding 273 people.
The RNLI’s Mayday campaign runs throughout May and aims to raise £750,000 to fund lifesaving kit for the charity’s brave volunteers. An RNLI crew member’s yellow wellies cost £55 a pair, a lifejacket costs £458 and a safety helmet costs £263.
The Royal National Lifeboat Institution is the charity that saves lives at sea. Its volunteers provide a 24-hour search and rescue service in the United Kingdom and Ireland from 238 lifeboat stations. Additionally, the RNLI has more than 1,000 lifeguards on over 240 beaches around the UK and operates a specialist flood rescue team.
The RNLI is entirely public-funded, receiving no money from government.
The RNLI has used experiential marketing with great effect over the past few years; in 2014, the launch of its ‘Respect the Water’ experiential campaign, which is still running today, won the IPM Grand Prix, as well as two Gold awards and a Silver, plus the Consumer Award.
