Category: Socila Media & Viral Marketing
Advertiser: CANADIAN BLOOD SERVICES
Product/Service: BLOOD DONATIONS
Agency: DDB CANADA/TORONTO
Creative Director: Louis-Philippe Tremblay (DDB Canada/Tribal Toronto)
Creative Director: Todd Mackie/Denise Rossetto (DDB Canada/Toronto)
Art Director: Barry Lachapelle (DDB Canada/Toronto)
Art Director: Paul Riss (DDB Canada/Toronto)
Copywriter: Matt Antonello (Ddb Canada/Toronto)
Director Of Production: Catherine Kim (DDB Canada/Tribal Toronto)
Social Media Strategist: Ed Lee (DDB Canada/Tribal Toronto)
Copywriter: Sanya Grujicic (DDB Canada/Tribal Toronto)
Copywriter: Ryan Lawrence (DDB Canada/Tribal Toronto)
Copywriter: Tiffany Chung (DDB Canada/Tribal Toronto)
Social Media Cultivator: Danie Gomez Ortigoza
Cinematographer: Jim Morrison V
Editor: Dean Vargas
Audio House Engineer: Paul Seeley
Flash Developer: Dana Brousseau
Account Manager: Susan Mcgregor (DDB Canada/Toronto)
Account Manager: Nicole Lupke (DDB Canada/Toronto)
Account Manager: Joel Hunking (DDB Canada/Toronto)
Account Manager: Serena Trentini (DDB Canada/Toronto)
Illustrator: Keith Negley
Media placement: Print - Gujrat Express; Parvasi; Hindi Abroad - May 2, 2011
Media placement: OOH - Toronto-Dundas St. Canada, Wellsley St. Toronto, Kinsway West- Vancouver, Main St. N. Vancouver - May 2, 2011
Media placement: Radio - Toronto: CHFI FM, CHBM FM, CFTR, Vancouver: CHQM FM, CKZZ FM - May 2, 2011
Media placement: Online (Microsite + 3rd Party Banners) - Msn.ca; Yahoo.ca, Sympatico.ca - May 2, 2011
Describe the brief/objective of the direct campaign.
The need for blood is never ending, and urgent. We were tasked with the objective of attracting 100,000 donors annually within 3 years – Canadian Blood Services highest target yet. To reach this, we needed a new strategic approach. One that was grass-roots, peer-to-peer and spoke directly to Canadians who are more inclined to donate. Rounds of research revealed that our low-hanging fruit belonged to 3 communities: South Asian, Filipino, and Chinese. Selection was based on findings demonstrating the behavioural predisposition and inherent cultural values of these groups indicate a high affinity for supporting the need for blood donations.
Describe the creative solution to the brief/objective with reference to the projected response rates and desired outcome.
To spark conversation and motivate our communities to rally as many as possible of their neighbours, friends and family to become donors, we developed the Blood Signal - the first-ever Canadian icon that acts as a visual call-to-action, alerting Canadians to the fact that blood supplies are low and action is needed. The Blood Signal is activated sporadically throughout the year when supplies are needed most. Being a true signal, it was important that we developed creative to be used when the Blood Signal was ‘off’, to educate people about what the Blood Signal is and to ensure continued donations throughout the year.
Explain why the creative execution was relevant to the product or service.
A targeted, guerrilla-style launch unveiled Blood Signal to our 3 communities. These events served to pique curiosity and educate the communities on how they should rally together to help their fellow Canadians. The Blood Signal showcased a URL driving people to bloodsignal.ca – where, using Facebook Connect in an innovative way to bring compelling statistics to life, a personalised video pulled in statistics, visuals, and audio narrative of each user working with their Facebook friends to illustrate the need for blood. To drive awareness of Blood Signal, the campaign, supported by TSAs, Print, Radio, blogger outreach programmes and digital banners.
Describe the results in as much detail as possible with particular reference to the RESPONSE of the target audience including deliverability statistics, response rates, click throughs, sales cost per response, relationships built and overall return on investment.
In the first 3 months of the launch, Canadian Blood Services collected over 11,000 units of blood from new donors -exceeding their target by 27%. To date the microsite has generated over 148,900 hits and that number increases almost every minute. Anecdotally, measurements of engagement on bloodsignal.ca and thought-provoking posts on the Canadian Blood Services Facebook page all point to the fact that this campaign is well on it’s way to achieving its ultimate goal – to inspire donors-to-be to roll up their sleeves and donate blood.