This week Launch Group joined The Royal British Legion for this year’s launch of the Poppy Appeal 2011.

This year marks the 90th anniversary of The Royal British Legion and to celebrate, the Legion is calling for the nation to stand shoulder to shoulder with serving and ex-Service personnel and show their support by wearing a poppy.

Whether it’s the traditional poppy or a virtual poppy, the long standing symbol of The Royal British Legion remains a powerful reminder of those who have served and still serve the Armed Forces.

This year, the team are helping to get the word out about  The Shoulder to Shoulder app, which enables people to upload a photo of themselves, add a poppy to it and then a message of support to our Armed Forces. Once submitted, the images then appear on the Shoulder to Shoulder virtual wall.

The app launched yesterday and already an amazing 2,800 people have uploaded pictures to show their support.

To show your support, check out the website and follow Shoulder to Shoulder on Twitter.

Twitter has become the most important soap-box of the media world – forget reading about gossip in weekly mags and online rags, these days we want it immediately from our favourite ‘slebs smartphone.

It really is a wonder the impact that just 140 characters can make on a campaign.  You can have a steady increase of followers, and then BOOM! Stephen Fry gives you a mention and your figures leap.

Lazy folk don’t even need to write a personal message, they can just retweet somebody, and then your reach automatically widens to their avid followers too.

Celebrity endorsement from shampoo to cars is a multi-billion pound industry with temperamental results, yet the power of a recommendation on Twitter is immense.  Simon Cowell asked the Twittersphere where he could get a Poppy Twibbon (like a bumper plate sticker for your Twitter avatar, a way to show your allegiance to a cause), PoppyLegion (aka us here at Launch!) replied linking to the Official Royal British Legion Twibbon and Simon told his 40,000 followers that he “highly recommends” following PoppyLegion.  The result? 160 people started following Poppy almost immediately. 

It is also a great outlet for enquiries; after the X Factor gang wore personalised sparkly poppies, everyone wanted to know where to get one.  As a result, they completely sold out (raising massive amounts for the Poppy Appeal) particularly after Dannii Minogue and The Saturdays tweeted about how much they loved theirs. 

The charity 2 Minute Silence single is supported by myriad public figures – from sports stars to musicians and politicians – and has created a great Twitter publicity push that reaches a great scope of the population; Thom Yorke reached the alternative crowd, David Tennant called out to his Dr Who devotees and Stephen Fry enlightened his 2 million fans.

In the two weeks of the 2010 Poppy Appeal , PoppyLegion has multiplied her followers by a third, an amazing achievement which I’m sure is down to  the passion for the cause – not just celebrity advocacy…but it sure does help point people in our direction.

So if you too want to join the clique of a media mogul, ex-Prime Minister and top popstars I’d recommend you follow @PoppyLegion too.

It’s an odd feeling blogging as myself – Rachel from Launch’s SM team – it wasn’t that long ago that I became the ‘voice’ of The Royal British Legion’s Poppy Man! For anyone unfamiliar with the charity’s lanky, poppy-strewn mascot, Poppy Man represents the RBL’s core values of remembrance and honour. He tours around the UK during the annual Poppy Appeal and helps raise vital funds for those affected by war and conflict. He does this by appearing at key social events and meeting high-profile figures like Princess Anne and Hayley Westenra. Tough life! He’s a fairly new addition to the charity scene, though, and SM was tasked with giving him a presence online, particularly among the young and social media savvy. The problem was that most of the RBL’s young target audience didn’t really know what he was supposed to be, let alone what he was for. Step one then, was to tap into the blog phenomenon and create Poppy Man’s very own Moblog. A bit like an ordinary blog but one with the added kudos of allowing people to text in messages via their phone, this meant that if Poppy Man wasn’t permitted to speak in ‘person’ (he’s the strong and silent type), he could at least share his thoughts on the web, and interact with supporters that way. And they, in turn, could send in content while on the move – anytime and anywhere. Pretty snazzy. There’s no point having a one-sided conversation, after all.
 

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