2019 Winners & Shortlists

Why is this work relevant for Brand Experience & Activation?

Because of the need to differentiate all aspects of our communication from other NGOs in the period of Ramadan. Our message needed to cut through the clutter, so leveraging well- would work at our disadvantage. This needed to be true throughout all our digital executions, and was most particularly achieved both from a strategic and executional branding standpoint. Our partnership with Facebook allowed us to identify which elements to emphasize. We went outside of the usual visual identity of the brand, creating a poppy and disruptive visual language that nonetheless honored the occasion and suited our mission.

Background

Volume of blood donations falls over 40% in MENA countries during Ramadan, due to misinformed doubts about donating. This leads to a yearly health crisis, as blood only has a maximum shelf life of 42 days. Our challenge was to massively drive donations despite Ramadan being the time at which people’s generosity is the most in demand – hence needed to have a unique presence on the newsfeed to stand out. Facebook, as part of its yearly Hack For Good, in which they sponsor a campaign for a good cause provided support, mainly in media buying, to the agency developing the work. The only condition being that the campaign be conducted entirely on Facebook. We exceeded our donation target, with a 91% total increase in blood donations to Red Crescent blood banks across MENA 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. Our idea became 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.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) are some of the most easily recognized NGOs worldwide. Our logos are immediately identifiable and are often synonymous with health initiatives. However, during a time like Ramadan, most brands and NGOs conducting campaigns adopt an identity outside of their usual brand, laden with crescent moons (our main logo in the region), lanterns and other Ramadan symbols. These campaigns are often the most massive of the year. We decided to target the mass as well, as we could not afford to be picky about whose blood we got; however we would have to present an image that is different from the usual Ramadan initiatives. We settled on a colorful visual style and lighthearted tone of voice that would differentiate us from the rest of the brands communicating and inform people in just a few seconds.

Describe the execution

We identified two executional elements in which we absolutely had to be different: length and usage of Ramadan tropes (crescents, lanterns). Our partnership with Facebook enabled us to create content specially suited and optimized for the platform. We created 3 10 second animations, to directly fill gaps in knowledge about the act of giving blood during Ramadan. We used Facebook AR Camera to let people edit their profile pictures and show their support for the campaign. We also created a calendar-like long image which showed the amount of donations of material things made during Ramadan, put in stark contrast with the dwindling amount of blood donations over time. 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 giving blood the whole time.

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. Finally, we established Ramadan as a time to donate blood.