American Red Cross

Crafting a social-friendly email campaign to engage individuals who have never donated blood.

The Grove team was tasked with developing a digital campaign to engage potential donors and have them commit to donating by scheduling times for donations.


Brand Identity + Collateral

Campaign Concepts + Design

Campaign Ideation

During our initial meetings with the American Red Cross Blood Services team, we learned that many obstacles prevent individuals from donating blood, such as situational fear, momentary pain, or the time commitment involved. Following targeted brainstorming sessions, our team developed numerous concepts for the overall campaign, focusing on transforming these obstacles into something positive.

This exploration included creating general concepts, headlines, hashtags, and shareable assets. The updated brand guidelines were then applied to various sales and marketing materials, thus broadening their application and ensuring synergy across a variety of platforms.

Campaign Extensions

From the concepts presented, we moved forward with the “Would You Rather” campaign, which focused on turning obstacles into lighthearted comparisons of everyday situations. What’s more important—twenty hours of binge-watching Netflix or spending one hour helping someone in need?

Our team collaborated with the American Red Cross on how to best implement the campaign with their existing CRM. To help move potential donors from exposure through social media to engaging with landing and thank you pages and then into email nurturing.

Illustrations & Email Implementation

Each of the twenty email designs addressed a separate ‘Would You Rather’ comparison and incorporated custom-designed character illustrations to complete the concept. Each email used subject lines to entice the viewer and dynamic layouts to keep their attention. Due to blood donation restrictions, emails were divided into two categories.

Emails for recipients under seventeen years of age encouraged them to pledge to donate in the future and included more playful analogies, while emails sent to recipients over seventeen led them to schedule an appointment with the American Red Cross.

Increased Engagement Driven by Creativity

Our team’s creative efforts in building the “Would You Rather” digital campaign captivated the audience and effectively communicated the impact of supporting the American Red Cross. This contributed to donor pledges as the campaign resonated with people and inspired them to take action for a worthy cause.