Case Study – Devon Air Ambulance Trust

The Project

We were delighted to help Devon Air Ambulance mark its 25th anniversary by live streaming an event to raise awareness of the charity’s life-saving work.

Devon & Cornwall Police, Devon & Somerset Fire & Rescue Service and the South Western Ambulance Service joined DAA to demonstrate how the emergency services respond to a road traffic collision. The reconstruction of a crash involving a motorbike and a car was part of a day-long event at Darts Farm, near Exeter, celebrating the charity’s 25 years of service.

What the client wanted

Devon Air Ambulance CEO Heléna Holt said: “As a Devon-wide charity, we knew not everyone could get to all the special events celebrating our 25th anniversary, so live streaming this demonstration was a great way of sharing something with everyone on social media.

“We initially decided to have a big screen showing live footage because we have done demonstrations at previous events and found that it can be hard for people who aren’t near the front to see what’s happening. Then we decided to use Facebook Live to put it out there for everyone.

“We knew Alex already because he had provided video training for some of our staff, so Bitpod was the natural choice. Alex very generously offered to do this at no cost to the charity.”

What we did

In advance of the event, we prepared additional media – including sound effects and a video showing how the air ambulance responds to an emergency call – to add realism and enhance the live stream.

On the day, we used multiple camera angles and close-ups to capture what was happening. Before and after the demonstration, moderated social media feeds were shown on the big screen, encouraging audience interaction.

“Everything on the day went perfectly, and we were really pleased with Bitpod’s expertise and their help with everything from creating graphics to liaising with the events company who provided the big screen,” said Heléna.

The impact

The live stream has been viewed by more than 5,600 people on Facebook, both during and after the event, attracting many likes and comments praising the work of Devon Air Ambulance crews. The video was also uploaded to YouTube, to reach a wider audience.

Heléna added: “We’ve had a really positive response. For people who couldn’t get along to the event, it made them feel part of it.

“Digital and video are really important to us. It’s a great way to get our key messages out to a large audience, through Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

“We’ll definitely be showing this video at future events. It’s a really important resource because it really brings alive what we do.”

Bitpod director Alex Wren said:

“Live streaming an event is a great way to reach a wider audience online, especially when people work so hard to make the event happen in the first place. It means the event lives on through social media, and the video can be seen by many more people than were able to be there on the day.

“This was a really inspirational project to work on and we hope the video will help to raise awareness of Devon Air Ambulance’s vital work.”