​National Blood Donor Week 2023 - Helping Aotearoa find its why

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National Blood Donor Week 2023 - Helping Aotearoa find its why

About


What do you do when a day just won’t do? You swing your PR team into action and create a national week of celebration instead. 

For over a decade World Blood Donor Day had been the cornerstone of New Zealand’s Blood Service’s (NZBS) PR calendar – a day to celebrate the country’s blood and plasma donors and encourage more people to roll up their sleeves and join the donation register. In 2022, in a PR led strategy, NZBS upped the ante and launched New Zealand’s first National Blood Donor Week. 

Every 18 minutes in New Zealand someone needs lifesaving blood or plasma, but less than 4% of the eligible population are currently registered to donate.  

With demand threating to outstrip supply in NZ, we knew the 2023 campaign had to pack a punch and help play a key role in encouraging 40,000 new donors to join the donor registry. 

Our Approach

For the country’s second National Blood Donor Week, which ran from Monday 12th to Sunday 18th June, we set out to help more Kiwis ‘find their why’ and start saving lives. 

At its heart, this campaign is about storytelling. By sharing the personal stories of those whose lives have been impacted by donated blood/plasma and those that choose to be donors, we helped break down barriers around the donation process and inspired a new wave of eligible individuals to find their ‘Why’ and become regular donors.   

Our targeted campaign delivered exclusive news content with a clear call to action across a wide range of national and regional media to help drive change and encourage people to become donors. 

Results

  • Over the course of the week, we achieved 80+ media stories across all channels.
  • It was a high-impact campaign, hitting all top-tier broadcast media across both news and current affairs. 
  • Working with Newshub/Discovery, we secured a trifecta of earned-media to start the week off with a bang. Leading with Newshub at 6pm, AM the following morning and The Project on Monday evening.
  • Over at TVNZ, Seven Sharp told the story of the Corbett familyand presenter Daniel Faitaua talked about his experience as a donor on Breakfast.
  • We set up several extensive interviews that aired on RNZand Newstalk ZB.
  • In-depth article on Stuff.co.nz covering the importance of self-reliance and why NZ doesn’t renumerate its donors.
  • We worked hard to cultivate a relationship with former Palmerston North Deputy Mayor and Instagram influencer, who provided support throughout the week.
  • 65% of our earned media stories included a quote from a NZBS spokesperson, 85% contained a key message, and 40% featured a direct call to action with instructions on how the reader could check their eligibility and book a donation appointment.

As a result of this campaign, New Zealand Blood Service experienced a:

o   108.6% increase in donor profiles created compared to the previous week.

o   63.8% increase in online blood donation bookings compared to the previous week.

o   91.8% increase in visits to the NZBS website compared to the previous week.

o   And we observed a dramatic spike in blood donation bookings through the NZBS app immediately after a major media story went to air.  

New Zealand Blood Service's national marketing and communications manager Asuka Burge and Plasma receiver Vicky O'Connor drop by the AM show to discuss the rising need for blood plasma donations in New Zealand.