Commemorating Operation Dynamo for Norfolkline

The client
Norfolkline, a European ferry operator and logistics company owned by Maersk, with freight ferry services on the English Channel, Irish Sea and the North Sea.

The solution
To celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Dover to Dunkirk route, and in commemoration of Operation Dynamo, Westgate organised a special onboard event to take British veterans to receive a special medal from the Mayor of Dunkirk. The veterans were accompanied by British and French school children, UK and European dignitaries and organisations including the Commonwealth War Graves Commission

With a ceremony by the Royal Choral Society on the upper deck whilst at sea and a flyover by a Lancaster and a Spitfire, we also transformed the car deck into a special banqueting hall for the medal presentation when the ship was in port.

The result
Our client said that this was one of the highlights of his career and Westgate used the event as a media platform – we hosted 50 journalists and achieved over 100 pieces of coverage including 8 broadcast interviews. Media coverage worth £1.4 million was generated in national and regional press, on and offline.