Peruvian Red Cross experienced an 1800% increase in potential donors with ‘Hashtags for Life’ Campaign

Hashtags for Life, a social media campaign to help expand the Red Cross‘ donor database in Peru, won the mobile category’s gold award at the 2016 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

With a population of over 30 million people, and yet only 1250 registered blood donors, Peru faced a potential catastrophe incase of emergency. Thats why the Peruvian Red Cross, in partnership with McCann Lima, implemented the Hashtags for Life campaign.

People are always on their phones using social media, constantly using hashtags for different trends and topics. The Peruvian Red Cross and McCann Lima decided to advantage of the hashtag and direct it towards a good cause.

All the people had to do was to hashtag their blood type followed by Peru (#yourbloodtypePeru) on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook to be filed in The Red Cross’ new digital donor database. It does not ask them to fill out any forms or to follow any steps other than sharing a simple hashtag, something they already do in their daily lives.

Now, the Peruvian Red Cross is able to file people by their blood type and contact them via direct message incase of emergency. A hashtag is not a promise to donate blood. It is just an opportunity for the Red Cross to contact a potential donor if need be.

After the implementation of Hashtags for Life, the Peruvian Red Cross experienced an 1800% increase in potential donors–22,983 donors compared to the previous 1250. Because of the great success of this campaign in Peru, the Red Cross is looking to implement a similar social media campaign throughout the rest of Latin America.

Article by Haley Manin, Lovely Mobile News

Source: Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity

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