Canadian Blood Services

Immersion:

Canadian Blood Services (CBS) is the not-for-profit organization that manages the supply of blood and blood products for Canadians. It was formed in 1998, as a result of the Krever inquiry into the tainted blood scandal.

From 1999-2004, we worked with CBS to establish their brand and to help re-establish public confidence in the blood system. We created the widely recognized theme line, "Blood. It's in you to give." We also helped turn around a 10-year decline in blood donations.

Insight:

In 2003, projections indicated that Canada would soon experience shortages in the blood supply unless more Canadians started donating. (Only 3% of eligible Canadians gave blood regularly.) Polling and focus groups confirmed that people understood the need, yet there remained broad complacency about acting. Most thought someone else would donate and few believed someone could actually die due to a shortage of blood.

Although our original campaign raised awareness about CBS, it had not bridged the gap between understanding the issue and acting upon it. Canadians believed giving blood was the right thing to do but they tended not to donate unless it became intensely personal - until someone close to them needed blood.

Ideas:

Knowing that grabbing their attention wasn't enough to empower our audience to act, new advertising for Canadian Blood Services had to communicate the real and personal consequences of not donating - not merely for shock value but to create a deeper, more personal appeal.

This led us to develop the creative concept: "What if someone you loved needed blood, and it wasn't there?"

Impact:

The advertising campaign generated dramatic results:

  • 10.2% increase in average weekly blood collections nationally
  • 14.5% rise in the average number of new donors weekly
  • 29% higher aided recall of 1-888-2-DONATE
  • 54.7% surge in calls to the national toll-free phone line
  • 15.8% increase in the average number of weekly appointments
  • 57.9% growth in public intent to donate blood
  • 25% increase in collections and over 100,000 new donors

The campaign also garnered a coveted CASSIE award, presented by the Institute of Communication Agencies (ICA) to recognize Canadian advertising success stories.

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