Organization looking for 100,000 new heroes
Note: This story was updated on July 13, 2011
Fictional Gotham City uses the Bat Signal to summon its hero when circumstances are dire; now, Canadian Blood Services has introduced the Blood Signal to alert would-be saviours when real-life KA-POWs, THWAPs and BOOMs create an urgent need for blood.
The national organization has launched a new three-year advertising campaign with an ambitious objective of recruiting 100,000 new donors annually, as well as 30,000 new registrants over the next three years.
At the heart of the campaign from DDB Canada’s Toronto office is a new visual and audio icon called the Blood Signal, a drop of blood surrounded by a series of vertical lines. Its audio counterpart is a four-note mnemonic.
Susan McGregor, account supervisor for DDB Canada, said that the objective is to educate people about what the signal and mnemonic represent in the campaign’s first year, and have them be an instantly recognizable cue for prospective donors going forward.
“We wanted to develop something that was unique, acted as a bit of an alert and could speak to everyone,” said McGregor. “Eventually it’s going to become synonymous with the act of giving blood,” she said. (We also think it’s also a creative concept that’s ripe for nighttime projection).
The campaign is targeting three primary constituencies: South Asians, Filipinos and Chinese. These groups were selected based on research indicating that they have a high propensity for blood donation.
“We wanted to do a hyper-targeted campaign and speak to people who we know are givers,” said McGregor. “The act of donating blood is a very personal act. It’s a lot easier to sign a cheque, so it’s very important that you speak to people who have this pre-disposition.”
The campaign is built around a dedicated website, social media, print, transit and radio advertising, as well as localized public relations efforts within the three target communities.
One transit ad appearing in Toronto’s Chinatown district, for instance, resembles an ad for an investment company except that the Blood Signal icon is partially obscuring the message. A print ad, meanwhile, is presented as a news story bearing the headline “Blood donation gives local woman new lease on life,” with the Blood Signal icon covering a portion of the type.
All of the ads drive to the BloodSignal.ca site, which invites visitors to log in using their Facebook profile to see a personalized video that outlines the urgent need for blood donors.
All of the statistics presented in the video are tailored to reflect the number of friends in the visitor’s Facebook network, while their friends’ profile pictures are also incorporated into the message.
“A lot of people who do donate have done so because they’ve known someone who has needed blood,” said McGregor. “If there is a strong personal connection, there’s a greater likelihood that you’ll actually donate. We thought it would be great if we could make the cause personal for everyone and the best way to do this would be through Facebook.”
DDB Public Relations also created buzz around the initiative with a community influencer program and a guerilla marketing strategy that saw the Blood Signal stenciled in various places throughout the campaign’s two primary markets of Toronto and Vancouver.
In addition, the agency’s social media arm, Radar DDB, is also working with community bloggers and influencers to have them embed a dedicated Blood Signal widget in their web site to serve as a call to action when blood is required.
