2019 Winners & Shortlists

RAMADAN BLOOD DRIVE

BrandINTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF RED CROSS AND RED CRESCENT SOCIETIES (IFRC)
Product/ServiceBLOOD DONATION
EntrantLEO BURNETT BEIRUT, LEBANON
CategoryCharities & Non-profit
Idea Creation LEO BURNETT BEIRUT, LEBANON
Media Placement LEO BURNETT BEIRUT, LEBANON
Production LEO BURNETT BEIRUT, LEBANON
Production 2 PRODIGIOUS MIDDLE EAST Beirut, LEBANON

Background.

Volume of blood donations falls over 40% in MENA countries during Ramadan, due to misinformed doubts about donating, as well as reduced on-ground presence on the part of blood banks. This leads to a yearly health crisis, as blood has a maximum shelf life of 42 days. Hence, our most immediate challenge was to educate people about blood donations and ultimately change the deeply ingrained public perception that donating blood while fasting or after fasting is unadvisable. Facebook endorsed the campaign as part of its yearly Hack For Good, in which they sponsor a campaign for a good cause. The only condition is that we use Facebook as our sole media channel for this campaign. We exceeded our donation increase target of 66% with a 91% increase in blood donations to Red Crescent blood banks year over year.

Describe the creative idea.

Giving is one of the pillars of Ramadan, however people are focused on material donations – usually food, money, and clothes, while blood is overlooked. Beyond this emotional reframing of blood, we needed to weave in an informational component to alleviate existing safety concerns. Chief among them was the belief that it was unsafe to donate while or after fasting. Second was a lack of knowledge about blood’s conservation: people generally don’t know that blood can only be conserved for short periods of time, leading to complacency concerning the urgency of donating blood in this period. With this information, people would be equipped to donate and convince others to as well. Barring this information, our idea was simple: remind people that the act of giving is something they practice everyday, and that blood should urgently become a part of that practice. Because giving is in their blood.

Describe the strategy.

Our campaign was truly mass, spanning 6 countries, as we could not afford to be picky about whose blood we got; however we would have to break through the clutter of Ramadan ads convince people to give without resorting to the same emotional storytelling as other brands. Because of the need to educate the public about the crisis about the fact that they can actually donate, resulting in an awareness-centric campaign, we decided to focus on reach as our sole KPI. We settled on a direct and informational content plan which would suit the way people use Facebook, along with a consistent and recognizable call to action. We had two imperatives: highlight the crisis and reassure on the possibility of donating. We believed that this, compounded with an attractive visual style and influencer support, would make blood donations more approachable and allow us to meet our target.

Describe the execution.

We used Facebook’s different formats and storytelling methods to their fullest extent. We created 3 10 second animations, to directly fill gaps in knowledge about the act of giving blood during Ramadan. We used a calendar-like long image to show the contrast of material donations with the small of blood donations made during Ramadan. We used Facebook AR Camera to let people edit their profile pictures and show their support for the campaign. All of this content was geo-targeted to people, and had a different “Learn More” button per country that would give them local info about donating, such as time and place. To normalize blood donations, we held a Facebook Live with two major celebrities (Hassan El Shafei & Sherine Abdel Wahab) having a normal conversation. After a few minutes, the camera zoomed out to reveal that Hassan was casually giving blood.

List the results.

Because of the awareness-centric nature of the campaign and the lack of tracking methods to blood donation centers, we only tracked reach as part of our communications KPIs, believing that getting our crucial information across would be all that is needed for people to take action. Our goal being to increase blood donations enough to cover the yearly fall of 40% in donations, we needed to increase donations 66% to make up for that gap. We reached 28 million people in 6 countries (Jordan, Palestine, Iraq, Egypt, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia) over the month of Ramadan with a media budget of only 50k USD. Moreover, our influencers’ Facebook Live streams gathered 180 thousand views organically. Most importantly, we largely exceeded our donation target, with a 91% total increase in blood donations to Red Crescent blood banks across MENA year over year.

Credits

Name Company Role
Bechara Mouzannar Leo Burnett Beirut Chief Creative Officer
Malek Ghorayeb Leo Burnett Beirut Executive Creative Director
Lama Assaf Leo Burnett Beirut Creative Technologist
Sabine Haddad Leo Burnett Beirut Senior Copywriter
Christian Manasci Leo Burnett Beirut Senior Copywriter
Orson Baz Leo Burnett Beirut Data Planner
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