For those that don’t know, the Gloss team have decided to walk the equivalent of a journey to Lapland. That’s a total of 5,438,958 steps! Don’t worry, there’s a method to the madness – we’re doing this to raise money for Birmingham Children’s Hospital! The aim is to collect as much money as possible in order to deliver some Christmas magic to the children.
We want to honour the amazing work the staff at Birmingham Children’s Hospital do every day, and support the young children with some well deserved Christmas cheer. In order to ensure they receive their presents on time, we’re giving ourselves until the 18th of December to complete this trek!
We began on the 23rd of November, in the home of iconic landmarks, the cast of Eastenders, and an array of red buses – London! From here, our team quickly made headway to our next destination – Brussels.
Our First Milestone – Brussels
Having travelled a distance of 235 miles from our starting point, the team were well on our way across borders. Whilst there, we couldn’t help but check out their marketing campaigns (naturally, of course).
We found out that in 2016, the Belgian Tourist Organisation needed to put Brussels on the map. So in order to do this, they created a ‘Call Brussels’ campaign to make a quick getaway accessible. They placed phone booths in countries around the world and in their own city centre. The idea was that people in any country could pick up the phone and speak to someone in Brussels. As a result, the phone lines stayed busy and the campaign was a success!
Our Second Milestone – Amsterdam
Since our previous pit stop, the team have walked a further 135 miles! Landing in one of the world’s most popular tourist destinations – Amsterdam. If you’ve been there yourself, the chances are you were greeted by a giant IAMSTERDAM sign (if so, you definitely utilised the photo opportunity).
This iconic sign was created as part of a marketing campaign to rebrand the city and improve its position for tourism. Competition from other countries in Europe meant that Amsterdam needed to up their game. So in September 2014, “I Amsterdam” was born.
Safe to say it worked, did you even visit the city if you didn’t take a selfie in front of the sign?
How You Can Help
We’ve made some serious progress, but we still have a long way to go. To be precise… that would be 1719.8 miles! But we need your help. Please donate using the link below and help us provide Birmingham Children’s Hospital with Christmas gifts and cheer. Our target is £1,500 by the 18th of December – but we’d love to smash this and raise more!
All money raised will be donated to the charity.
Donate here: https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/gloss-giving
For more information on Birmingham Children’s Hospital Christmas campaign, click here.
