Objective

The U.S. is experiencing the worst blood shortage in a generation. The COVID-19 pandemic, and the subsequent shift to remote work and school disrupted established blood drive infrastructure and significantly reduced convenient donation opportunities. At the same time, younger generations have not stepped up to donate at the same rate as previous generations that are rapidly losing eligibility as they grow older.

Someone needs blood every two seconds in the United States. The shortage has left some centers with a one-day supply of blood, so the need continues to be urgent. Convincing a new generation to make blood donation a habit is critical to a sustainable blood supply.

To help address this deficit, Abbott and the Big Ten launched the first college conference-wide blood donation competition. Harnessing the friendly rivalries of college football, “The We Give Blood Drive” aimed to rally students, alumni and fans to donate blood and help alleviate emergency shortages.

🎯 We had two key objectives:

1. Raise awareness of the national blood shortage and Abbott and the Big Ten's effort to help alleviate this health crisis.
2. Inspire people to donate blood and submit their donation for their Big Ten school of choice on our campaign website.

Strategy

✍️ Strategy

The Big Ten Conference and its 18 member universities were immediately on board – a first for any brand or partner – to join us on this initiative to inspire a new generation to see the urgent need for blood donations and be part of the solution. We tapped into school spirit and historic rivalries among the students, alumni and fanbases of each team to rally enthusiasm for the call to action. The core of the campaign leaned on the natural inclination for schools to compete against one another – this time for a good cause.

The Big Ten 2024 football season provided the perfect time to reach audiences when their attention was front and center. By tying our mission through the familiar and cherished tradition of college football, we aimed to raise awareness of the national blood shortage and encourage action to make an impact.

🩸Execution

“The We Give Blood Drive” competition challenged the Big Ten’s 18 member universities to participate in a friendly competition to be the school that garners the most blood donations during college football season (Sept. 26 through Dec. 6). We drove fans to BigTen.org/Abbott to find an on-campus blood drive or a participating local blood center to donate. Each donation counted as one “point” toward the school credited with the donation. The campaign website featured a live leaderboard showing competition results and tracking the number of lives saved (each donation can save up to three) in real time.

🏈 Launch

We launched with a joint press release and national press conference media event, featuring Abbott’s Chairman and CEO Robert Ford, Big Ten Conference Commissioner Tony Petitti, and NFL Legend and University of Michigan alumni Tom Brady, sparking national and local coverage. Several Big Ten mascots also joined us to kick off the competition. 

📱Content

Throughout the season, our traditional and social media efforts highlighted human-interest stories of people impacted by blood donations, including testimonials of cancer patients, accident victims and challenging childbirths. We also leveraged several popular social media trends, including: ‘Gen Z writes the marketing script’, ‘the pyramid rankings’ and the ‘accidental camera flip’ trends. Social content educated around the need for blood donations and tapped into the competitive school spirit.

📣 Influencers

We rallied 48 Big Ten student athletes, alumni, and pro athletes to inspire their social media followers to donate blood. Athletes like Cooper DeJean and Tom Brady created engaging content about the blood shortage, while student athletes such as Lexie Rodriguez, Hannah Stuelke and Tre Holloman encouraged their peers to help their school win the competition. The Are You Kidding TV influencer duo also hosted a man-on-the-street style contest where students who completed a challenge won tickets to the 2024 Discover Big Ten Football Championship Game.

🏆 The Winner

At the end of the competition, the school with the most blood donations received a $1 million grant from Abbott to advance student or community health. Nebraska took home the win with the most donations – Go Big Red!

Results

Objective: Raise awareness of blood shortage and the effort to help boost supply by Abbott and The Big Ten Conference

• Garnered 193.3K new followers to Abbott social channels and secured 64.8 MM in paid and organic social reach
• Secured 2,000 national and local broadcast and online placements including syndication stemming from 250 original stories
  • 93% included key messages about campaign and national blood shortage
• Secured top-tier coverage in Axios, Fox Sports, Access Hollywood, USA Today Sports, Sports Illustrated, Sports Business Journal and PARADE
• Social efforts led to more than 3,000 Big Ten/Abbott conversations about the initiative with an overall positive sentiment (90%+)  

Objective: Drive people to our campaign website and inspire them to donate blood

• Nearly 20,000 people donated, saving as many as 60,000 lives
  • 69% first time donors among college blood drives
• Nearly 4,000 donations made by supporters of The University of Nebraska, which won the competition
• Social and digital content drove 49.9MM paid video views and 484M paid clicks to campaign page where people could find their nearest blood donation center and submit their donation
• 48 influencers created more than 150 pieces of content with more than 5 million organic impressions.

Media