Royal Navy personnel and veterans who give back to the community are the focus of a new media campaign across the UK.
Aired at locations nationwide – starting with the gigantic digital billboard dominating London’s Piccadilly Circus on Saturday afternoon – the campaign highlights the sense of duty shared by sailors, Royal Marines and veterans.
Called ‘A Celebration of Duty’, the campaign has been developed jointly with London-based independent creative agency Hijinks Collective in collaboration with the Royal Navy’s communications team.
The campaign launches in Piccadilly Circus on Saturday with a film starring serving personnel and veterans who feature in the campaign.
The film will also roll out at cinemas and indoor/outdoor advertising spaces across the country.
One of the Navy personnel featured is Dr Imogen Napper, a marine conservationist and lieutenant in the Royal Navy Reserves. The 31-year-old Bristolian works with National Geographic and Plymouth University researching the impact of plastic pollution around the world and her PHD research was instrumental in the ban on microplastics in cosmetics to help clean up our oceans.
Another story featured is that of a former Royal Marine Captain who now goes by the stage name of Tip Cullen. Tip, 55, originally from Belfast but now based in the South West, served for 30 years before re-training as an actor and now works closely with the Soldiers Arts Academy giving serving and former military personnel a route into the arts.
And 53-year-old Colour Sergeant Mike Beaton from Torquay – known to thousands of social media users as the Commando Chef – is driven to educate young people against knife crime, hosting free cooking classes up and down the country with the catchphrase: “Knives in the kitchen and not on the streets”.
Others spotlighted in the campaign are:
• Lieutenant Izzy Rawlinson, aged 30 from Helensburgh in Scotland. Next year she’ll lead Team Valkyrie, the first all-serving military women’s team to row an ocean by crossing a 3,000-mile stretch of the Atlantic;
• Former Marine Captain Jon White, who lost three limbs serving in Afghanistan. The 40-year-old Devonian has gone on to be a para athlete and a leadership consultant;
• Petty Officer Bex Fyans from Basingstoke, who was awarded an MBE in 2020 for her commitment to disability, inclusion and diversity issues;
• and Lieutenant Commander Mark Bannister, a 46-year-old Reservist from Winchester who volunteers for South Central Ambulance Service, South Western Ambulance Service Foundation Trust and the RNLI.
Individual films about each person starring in the campaign will be featured here when the campaign goes live: https://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/celebrate
Alix Vonk, Head of Communications and Influence at the Royal Navy, said: “Since joining the Royal Navy communications team I have been blown away by the talent we have in-house. This collaboration and working with the Hijinks team has allowed us to push that talent and shape new thinking.
“This beautiful campaign sets out with true impact the authentic stories of the real people of the Royal Navy and their incredible sense of duty. I love that we are discovering new ways to bring the wider public into our world to better understand what our people do day to day in the UK, as well as at sea and overseas.”
Tamryn Kerr and Marc Allenby, Co-Founders and Chief Creative Officers at Hijinks Collective, said: “Seeing the work that we co-created with the Royal Navy go live is a real moment of Hijinks history.
“As an agency we set out to create culture, not campaigns and this piece of work is just that.
“Hearing all of the incredible stories of people going above and beyond to serve not only the Royal Navy but also their local communities was a joy. Getting to work with those same people to bring this campaign to life was a privilege.”
