HHS Office of Infectious Disease and HIV/AIDS Policy. Giving Equals Living Campaign.
How do we end a health crisis in the throes of another?
Challenge
With the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, which put lives and livelihoods at risk, the United States faced a severe shortage of blood and plasma supplies—threatening our nation’s health care system and the lives of people who depend on it.
Supplies plummeted to a historic low, with a 20% drop in donations. The HHS Office of Infectious Disease and HIV/AIDS Policy (OIDP) urgently needed to increase the number of donations to replenish the supply and to encourage people to donate consistently.
People need to feel connected with recipients to donate.
Our research uncovered that most people do not donate because they do not understand why they should donate and because they think the process is intimidating and time-consuming. However, people are driven by altruism and motivated when they connect to recipients emotionally and when they understand individual needs.
Don’t just tell people that donating saves lives–show them.
We created the Giving Equals Living campaign to highlight the direct impact donors make in saving lives. Positioning donors as heroes, we showcase recipients nationwide, who have received blood transfusions or who rely on plasma therapies, expressing their gratitude to those who have donated. Sharing their stories, in their words, creates the human connection that is necessary to motivate Americans to donate.
The national campaign, created in both English and Spanish, includes TV and radio, out-of-home, social media, and digital ads. A central hub is integral to help people find donation centers, learn about the need and process, access resources, and see recipient stories.
The Giving Equals Living campaign showcases six recipients' stories of how blood and plasma donors saved their lives, highlighting the significant impact of donation.
Mini-Documentaries
The Giving Equals Living campaign features two TV PSAs showcasing how blood and plasma donations transformed the lives of Earl, Heather, Arabel, and Alice. Earl is a veteran wounded by a bomb and Heather a mom with sickle cell disease, while Arabel is a student with hereditary angioedema and Alice an artist with a rare genetic disease.
TV PSAs
Out-of-Home
The out of home creative appeared in 20 markets across the country in bus shelters, posters and billboards.
Website
The website, created in English and Spanish, was an integral part of the campaign. All outreach—from the paid ads to the PSAs—drove people to the site to learn more about donation, to hear personal testimonials, and to find a local donation center. The website also has sharable promotional and educational content.
Social Media
A key component of campaign outreach included sharing educational and motivational content across HHS, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health, and OIDP channels. This content includes personal blood and plasma recipient stories, facts about blood and plasma donation, information on where to donate, Facebook frames and animated GIFs and stickers.
Results
300m
impressions in the first five months of campaign
332,000
new users driven to the website
40,000+
users visited the donation locators
Uptick in donations and a steadier supply of blood and plasma reported by industry partners.
9,900
129.5m
56m
impressions received from campaign hashtags on Twitter
engagements across Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram and generated more than 8.3M impressions
million reached across Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram through organic social