Valid Metrics Framework Case Study

BHS Blood and Transplant
Missing Type campaign

Case study: NHS Blood and Transplant, Missing Type campaign
Preparation and implementation:
Organisation Objectives:

Strategy:

NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) is a Special HealthAuthority. It provides a wide range of services to the National
Health Service that save and improve lives. The authority
encourages people to donate organs, blood, stem cells andtissues and ensures that a safe and adequate supply of bloodand blood components is delivered to hospitals across Englandand North WalesNHSBT faces a challenge in recruiting new donors - there has
been a 40% reduction in new donors coming forward in the last
decade which has meant that those regularly donating tend tobe older – half of current donors are over 45. This means that
supply is struggling to meet demand.

Communication objectives:
A key objective of the NHSBT Missing Type campaign was toraise public awareness of the decline in donor numbers and to
recruit 40,000 new donors in a month.
Target audiences:
There was a particular focus on raising awareness andincreasing the number of donors amongst young people andethnic groups

200,000 new volunteers are needed each year to help meetpatient needs. Ethnic groups are a particular challenge – Black,
Asian and minority ethnic people (BAME) make up 14% of theeligible donor population but only 5% have given blood in thelast year.
Activities:
The campaign stimulated mainstream and social media activity
by removing the letters representing the blood types ‘A’, ‘O’ and‘B’ from recognizable names places and brands. Examples
included the Odeon Leicester Square, Waterstones in Trafalgar
Square and the street sign on Downing Street. In addition,
NHSBT issued a series of press releases conveying hard hitting
facts about blood donation and promoted a number of patient
stories. Quotes from spokespeople were used to help convey
the message that the number of donors had declined. Inadditional there were a number of specific events aimed atraising awareness among ethnic groups.

Case study: NHS Blood and Transplant, Missing Type campaign
Measurement and insights:
Outputs:

Outcomes:• Mainstream media volumes doubled compared to last year.

• Registrations during the campaign period reached 47,000(more than double the number the previous year) while thetotal for the whole month was 57,000• The use of spokespeople helped to drive message delivery.
97% of articles delivered a key message – a year on year
increase of 16 percentage points. “New donors had decreasedby 40%” was the most prevalent message, delivered in 78% ofcontent.
• The website address featured prominently and was the mostfrequently mentioned ‘call to action’• The national campaign reached 69% of 18-24 year olds and73% of ethnic groups
Out-takes:• There was significant engagement on social media with morethan 19,000 posts, more than double the previous year.
Coverage had a longer ‘burn time’ than previous years and wassustained over many weeks. A strong driver of social media
engagement was the sharing of the #MissingType hashtag
which featured in more than 12,000 tweets.
• 11,000 people visited the campaign website with 17% clicking
through to book an appointment to give blood.

• Registrations for ethnic groups increased by 151% whileregistrations for young adults more than doubled
Impact and learnings:• The overall number of donor registrations exceeded themonthly target of 40,000• There were strong correlations between media coverage
and registrations which showed peaks of registrations
around key media activity on the 5th and 8th of June,suggesting a strong causal link.. In addition there weresignificant correlations between coverage that reached key
audiences of young people and ethnic groups and theresulting registrations of those specific audiences• A high proportion of visitors to the website came fromFacebook with the majority using the mobile app. This
feedback has been used to justify additional budget to
optimise the website for mobile audiences.
• Regional analysis showed that an experiment al tactic ofcomparing local registration numbers generated a strong
interest in regional media channels.