At the end of the season in May most footballers are either busy preparing for the World Cup, agitating for a pay rise/transfer, or holidaying in the sun, but Germany’s Bundesliga stars have been giving their time to a Red Cross blood donation drive ‘Give Blood, Give Power’.
An admirable and timely initiative, developed by agency Jung von Matt for the German Red Cross, a squad of the league’s top players donated blood in aid of children suffering with cancer.
The Bundesliga’s soccer stars, the charity and the agency all linked on a campaign that not only saw Germany’s top footballers donate their blood for those needing daily transfusions, but also have their individual blood bags branded with their pictures and names – thus ensuring the kids knew exactly who’s blood they were being given and who was helping them win their fight against cancer.
Players involved included Julian Draxler (Schalke 04), Ilkay Gundogan, Sebastian Kehl, Jurgen Klopp and Roman Weidenfeller (all Borussia Dortmund), Stefan Kiebling (Bayer Leverkusen), plus former international Christoph Metzelder.
Primarily a PR-stunt aimed at raising awareness of the problem and increasing public blood donation, the campaign included press images distributed to media organisation across the country and a promotional online video called ‘Give Blood, Give Power’.
The spot, which was produced by Mhoch4 and directed by Soeren Brandenburg, links football themes with recovery ones – from ‘A Fighting Spirit’ and the ‘Will Top Win’, to ‘The Power To Prevail’, to
The Jung von Matt team was led by chief creative officers Doerte Spengler-Ahrens and Jan Rexhausen, with creative director Felix Fenz, art-director Savina Mokreva, copywriter Robin Stam and account director Julia Schreiber.
The initiative subsequently spread into the grassroots game with numerous amateur footballers signing up as blood donors.
The concept was developed by Victor Segovia Navarro and Javier Gelpi de Fez, while the managing directors were Katja Kraus and Christoph Metzelder, the project manager was Lisa Waehrer and the agency producer was Danilo Kloever.
Comment
The campaign is neatly timed to maximise media interest and public attention.
It coincides with both the end of the German domestic season and to leverage interest in the players in the build up to the World Cup.
Thus capitalising on intense media interest in football across the country and building nationwide goodwill before Brazil 2014 kicks off.
The planning and creative approach saw the campaign reach 20 million people across all channels – TV, PR, online, Facebook, Twitter and the national press – with the web ad alone racking up 2.5m YouTube views since its 9 May launch.
Links
Give Blood, Give Power Online Ad YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAQRYFkkGR8
German Red Cross
http://www.drk.de/ueber-uns/auftrag/english.html
Jung von Matt
http://www.jvm.com/de/home/index.html
Bundesliga
