London is a city that speaks hundreds of languages, boasts more nationalities and lifestyles than any other place on Earth and develops its trends faster than the global marketeers can map and execute.  London’s Air Ambulance serves the 10 million people who live, work and commute within the M25, and provides an advanced trauma team to those patients who are simply too sick to get to hospital. The awareness of this diverse and transitional community is paramount for our charity; the life-line we offer our beneficiaries is reciprocated by the donations from the people and businesses of London; the charity’s own life-line.

Any local charity trying to get their message to Londoners on the go (and let’s face it, Londoners are always on the go!) has to compete for their attention with advertising behemoths. And even if we succeed, chances are the Londoner in question will potentially commute home outside of the capital and longer term, may relocate to New York or Hong Kong or even ‘retire’ to the counties to raise a family.

Digital out-of-home advertising has provided unprecedented opportunities in the face of such myriad challenges therefore;  the digital screen’s ability to show concepts in motion is perfect for London’s Air Ambulance, a service defined by mobility and speed; the medium’s capacity for constant change allows unprecedented flexibility of updates for a dynamic social organisation such as ours.

Rightly, as a regional charity, we don’t have access to (and nor we could justify) the advertising budgets of many of our national and international colleagues (and dare I say it, competitors in the ever expanding arena of good causes) and we simply couldn’t afford to advertise in key London locations.  Which is where the invaluable support from Ocean Outdoor comes in to its own. Two iconic brands working in partnership to reach out to Londoners on issues that truly matter. We are extremely grateful to all of you at Ocean Outdoor and I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone involved for their generosity and professional support. It is thanks to you that we receive ‘text to donate’ SMS donations that allow our helicopter to land in the streets of London; it is thanks to you each ‘donate’ click via our website helps deliver our advanced trauma doctor and paramedic to a patient’s side to perform sophisticated medical interventions, normally only found in a hospital’s Emergency Department, at the roadside.

The success of our biggest fundraising drive ever, the ‘Your London Your Helicopter’ campaign, which aims to raise £6 million to acquire a 2^nd helicopter for London and extend our daylight flying hours for five years, depends on support such as yours.  We have currently raised £3.9 million towards this target and we are moving closer to that much needed 2^nd emergency medical helicopter for London.  If any other of your partner organisations feel they can support London’s Air Ambulance in any way, please contact me directly on g.hodgkin@londonsairambulance.co.uk.  We would love to hear from you. Equally, a small donation at yourhelicopter.london can make a big difference.

On behalf of our patients, thankyou for everything that you do to support our life-saving charity.