Elf-help produces huge Christmas social engagement for FRS teams

ENTANGLED in fairy lights, stuck in floods, taking ‘elfies and drink driving to name but a few…the fire service Elf on the Shelf was up to all sorts of antics in December as FirePRO worked collectively for a Christmas campaign.

Each service tweeted a photo of the elf each day to get across a different safety message or promote the work of fire and rescue services. They nominated another service to take up the challenge the following day, with each fire service encouraged to retweet the posts.

The tweets reached over 260,000 people over the 25 days ending with a video from Greater Manchester stating the elf’s messages should be for life not just for Christmas.

Hayley Douglas, Head of Media and Communication for Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service, said: “It was great to have so many fire service communication teams support the idea, which came about during a conversation around the lunch table at the FirePRO conference. We all have the same messages we want to get across in the run up to Christmas and so this was a way of saving some time and effort by only having to do one each. Thanks to everyone who took part.”

Hayley added: “We now have 10 months to plan something bigger and better for next Christmas!”