How A Holiday Campaign Helped Triple Blood Donations
The need for blood donations is constant, but our awareness and availability to donate isn’t. Busy seasons for us are slow seasons for Canadian Blood Services, and the holidays are no exception. With the added pressure of a decline in post-pandemic donorship, CBS needed to ensure that donations didn’t drop through December and January.
Putting on our ruthless empathy caps, we focused on delivering a simple campaign idea that would immediately resonate with people: it’s the little things that matter most.
To bring the message to life, we helped real recipients tell their real stories, and packaged them in a way that could easily come alive on multiple channels, from radio to social to paid media.
The result? A campaign that tripled donations over six weeks, securing a healthy blood supply heading into the new year.
How Do You Market Non-Profits During the Holidays?
It’s the most wonderful time of the year, but also a stressful, expensive and distracting time for consumers. It's a time of giving for many, and most charities concentrate their campaigns and resources during this period.
However, with inflation looming and a sociopolitical climate that leaves the path to meaningful change unclear, consumers are facing a growing sense of "compassion fatigue." It can be difficult for a charity to stand out in this context.
Luckily for us, CBS is an organization that has a unique offering for donors, and solves a unique problem. It costs nothing to give, and means everything to recipients.
A Direct Ask, A Clearly Emotional Message
CBS's market research revealed something surprising: most people didn’t even feel like they’d ever been asked to donate blood, and many didn’t realize the constant need for donations. It was clear that our message needed to both build awareness and drive conversions in spaces with limited attention spans.
With that in mind, and a brief full of short, tactical assets (social ads, digital billboards, or programmatic buys), we knew we couldn't mince words. Our message had to be an unmistakable call to action, cutting through the noise of the season. The campaign message led with “Donate” and followed with the reasons for the season, “hope”, “joy”, “memories” and more. This framework told the story fast— when you donate blood, you’re giving more precious moments to a family like your own.
Authentic Storytelling Powered by Real Empathy
At the heart of this campaign were everyday people whose lives had been saved by blood donations, and the families who won back more holidays together because of CBS.
In our brainstorming sessions, the team echoed that it’s the small moments that make the holidays special. Everyone curled up with a book, the last minute shopping trips, the dishes you wash with the cousin you haven’t seen in ages. These simple moments not only hit hard with donors emotionally, they also represent a small enough arena where they feel like they can affect change. We’re not asking them to save the world, we’re asking them to make sure everyone can make it home for dinner.
With this in mind, we asked our participants to reflect on the holiday moments they took for granted, missed during the hard times, and now appreciate all the more. We took the utmost care with our participants from initial discovery calls to production, creating a space where participants could speak authentically about really tough stuff.
The final product feels empowering and uplifting, reminding the audience all they have to be thankful for and how simple it can be to make a difference. From family traditions to simple moments of joy, we showed potential donors how their contributions could give others a future. Whether in long-form videos or still images, the chemistry between these families told a powerful story, even without words.
Integrated Media: Messaging with Intention
We knew our interviews had to be concise, capturing emotional statements and personal traditions that could be clipped, pasted, and used across formats—from short social cuts to longer hero content. Our integrated media plan included digital ads, programmatic buys, and strategic retargeting, giving our audience multiple chances to connect with the faces of the campaign.
With more than half of repeat donors being over fifty, CBS needed to attract new donors, especially younger people, who are underrepresented in the donor base. To reach this audience, we activated on channels where younger people spend more time—social media, digital platforms, and targeted ads.
A generous media donation allowed us to amplify CBS’ message far and wide during the crowded holiday season, ensuring it reached donors across demographics.
End-to-End Project Ownership
To say this was our baby is no exaggeration. We owned this campaign every step of the way. We met with participants ahead of time, capturing details from their story, all the way to their dietary restrictions for shoot day. We conducted all the interviews, offered creative direction for lighting and wardrobe, wrote and designed every last asset.
We also had the privilege of selecting our production team, and Ottawa-based No Hands was a no-brainer. Their technical expertise and emotional intelligence were instrumental in making participants feel comfortable and capturing authentic moments.
At no point in the process did we hand over the keys to the campaign, leaving no room for broken telephone or misaligned expectations along the way. From initial outreach to production to the final web banner, our team worked tirelessly to ensure CBS was activating at their best across every touchpoint.
The Results: Turning Challenges into Triumphs
This campaign saw blood donations triple over a six week span, proving that bold, simple ideas, authentic stories, and smart media placement can transform a challenge into a triumph. And when you have a team that’s invested, emotionally intelligent, and fully committed, your idea can go further, faster.