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Brief

The charity uses a range of fundraising activities to raise money including sporting events, corporate partnerships, and community fundraising.

RNRMC’s main objectives were to raise significant funds to support sailors, Marines and their families, as well as raise awareness of the charity to new and existing audiences.

DRPG was tasked with helping the charity reach its goal in the most creative way possible, and to seamlessly manage an amazing, yet challenging, venue. HMS Queen Elizabeth is the largest and most powerful vessel ever constructed for the Royal Navy and the affiliate ship of RNRMC. With a vast space to use in the aircraft hangar, this quickly became the obvious venue.

Solution

After extensive discussions a James Bond theme was chosen which seemed very appropriate for the venue.

DRPG creatives researched Ian Flemming and decided that ‘Her Majesty's Wave’ was a Bond novel as yet unpublished. From here an exciting mix of experiential and theme led experiences were developed to be woven into the evening.

The Royal Marines Demo Team to played a Hollywood worthy ‘Bond’ and the opposing villainous squad, in a
series of realistic fight sequences in between dinner courses providing a blockbuster storyline for the audience to enjoy
throughout the evening. The level of creative detail was exemplified as the ships main Tannoy was used for cryptic
messages from the fictional enemies, that really added to the realism of the event.

The action was followed by stunning performances from opera singer, Friederike Krum, His Majesty's Royal Marines Band, a cash casino, and a speech from the 12-year-old son of a serving submariner, creating a moving mood. Gifted cars from patrons of the charity were showcased in a museum style set within the hangar where special consideration had been given to the lighting and display. Finally the evening wrapped up with a floor-filling band, RPJ, that had the entire ship swaying from all the dancing!

Cost was a careful consideration for this project, and spend was kept at a minimum, fom providing the agency's own talent to play the onscreen characters in the VTs within the fictional sequence, through to the catering being supplied at cost by ESS.

As well as the creative theming and overall show production the logistics were managed by DRPG too.

Challenges

When it comes to organising a delicate and extravagant gala dinner in a space most suitable for military cargo and fighter jets, planning threw some challenges into the mix.

Security was paramount as every external visitor needed an escort while on the fully operational naval base, so the team worked in the background to ensure everyone working on the event was cleared to go about their duties ahead of the event. Additional timings were also factored in to allow the processing on arrival and physical access to the ship.

Alongside the plans for human boarding, work was being done in addressing loading onto the ship, given that nothing could be transported onto the ship without a crane. All furniture, kit and equipment had to be carefully scheduled and loaded into ISO shipping containers and then onboarded with a dedicated team. This took meticulous planning between DRPG and the naval teams, which resulted in gallons upon gallons of stored water readily available for the bar and kitchen down to the microwave adapters for the show crew’s common room.

These challenges were combatted with collaboration between military grade risk and planning documents to unparalleled event management and logistics experience.

Result

The event was a tremendous success with the RNRMC raising £206,000. The experience was designed so that whether guests wanted to engage completely or just enjoy some of the vignettes enjoyment was self-driven. 

The RNRMC has decided this will be take place every other year and DRPG is already working on the next event in 2024.