#OPTINK leverages social media to address a nationwide problem (low German organ donation rates) through a culturally relevant trend (25% of Germans are tattooed) by using the audience’s main inspiration-source as influencers: tattoo artists.

#OPTINK is a free tattoo to ‘opt-in’ for organ donation. A valid proof of will that sparks conversations with key decision-makers: families.

Tattoo artists became advocates by promoting #OPTINK interpretations on social, driving people to tattoo studios, which became organ donor recruitment centers.

Social media became, through #OPTINK, the first way of documenting consent in a country with no national registry keeping track of willing donors.

84% of Germans are in favor of organ donation, but only 0.001% effectively donate – one of the lowest rates in Europe.

This leads to 10,000 people on organ transplant lists, with 1000 dying every year (+3 per day).

Still, the government maintains an ‘opt-in’ system which requires explicit proof of consent (whatever its form) to become a donor. Regardless, the final say is given to families.

But with no national registry to record willing donors, people’s wishes easily become unknown.

Consequently, over 40% of families reject organ donations due to unawareness.

In 2020, a healthcare reform bill to change to an opt-out system failed.

In 2023, donor numbers reached a decade low.

For their 20th anniversary, Junge Helden, Germany's leading organ donation awareness association, asked for a nationwide campaign that sparked conversations about the topic and its obstacles (opt-in barrier, lack of documentation, informing families).

Budget? €0.

Only 0,001% of Germans donate their organs.

But 1 in 4 Germans are inked.

Enter #OPTINK: a free tattoo that allows people to ‘opt-in’ for organ donation and spark conversations with final decision-makers, families.

An innovative solution to express consent by documenting it on your skin, becoming indisputable proof of will. On a technical level, we also converted the standard tattoo consent form into an organ donation one.

Teaming up with acclaimed tattoo artist Gara, #OPTINK taps into two key decision-making factors for ink-enthusiasts: design and meaning.

Launched at tattoo conventions and events, featuring zero-budget partnerships with celebrities, doctors and especially tattoo studios, #OPTINK took over social media and opened the discussion about a neglected topic.

By leveraging the power of communities, #OPTINK turned ink-lovers and tattoo artists into advocates for our cause and tattoo studios into organ donor recruitment centers.

1 #OPTINK = 7 lives saved.

The campaign began with data gathering on ink-lovers' social-media behavior, discovering that their main source of inspiration for new tattoos was on social media, especially Instagram, on tattoo artists and studios’ channels.

Targeting the German ink community (25% of the population), particularly 20-29-year-olds and Junge Helden's (Young Heroes, in English) primary demographic, we recruited A-list celebrities, media outlets, and especially tattoo artists/studios to advocate for our cause. A toolkit with guidelines encouraged artists to create their interpretations of the design, resulting in +250 studios joining the campaign.

The strategy of turning the name of the tattoo into a hashtag was essential to track the results and turn #OPTINK into a documented way of proving consent.

We then leveraged ink-lovers' tendency for sharing designs, creating a snowball effect: more people discovered the tattoo, got it themselves, and shared it, further increasing its visibility and impact.

#OPTINK was launched on one of Germany’s top tattoo conventions: Die Tattoo Convention in Braunschweig. For a weekend, its stand was fully booked and the first dozens of tattoos started being documented on social media.

After that first introduction to the specialized audience, a launch event with extensive media coverage and A-List celebrities getting inked live drove the idea into more and more feeds.

At this moment, artists and studios started joining the campaign and giving it exponential growth: they would share their interpretations with the hashtag #OPTINK, which then would be inked in people who would share them with their feeds, constantly maximizing the campaign’s reach.

With this, more local and national news outlets picked up the campaign, driving even more attention to Junge Helden and the cause. On a zero-budget plan, the campaign impacted millions on social media alone, becoming a tattoo hit in the country.

The campaign is an on-going effort for the future of Germany’s organ donation system, but #OPTINK has already gathered nationwide results:

+250 tattoo studios converted into organ donor recruitment centers

+2500 tattoos so far, on average +70 a day.

+17500 potential lives saved (1 donor = +7 organs = +7 lives saved)

Time spent with brand: Forever.

Endorsed by A-List German celebrities such as Wilson Gonzalez Ochsenknecht, Roman Knizka, Leslie Clio, Jan Köppen and Jochen Schropp.

+1.2 Billion free impressions, with primetime coverage on TV and major press nationwide

Shared by top-tier medical entities, e.g., German Federal Centre for Health Education, National Organ Donor Day, Charité Hospital Heart Center, West German Center for Organ Transplantation, and the Official federal portal for German pharmacists...

From a 15% loss in social media followers to a 100% growth in 8 weeks following the campaign.

We knew Germans were largely in favor of organ donation (84%). However, it’s not common to carry proof of consent, nor talking about such a sensitive topic.

By tapping into the inked population (25%), we explored a trendy cultural behavior with highly conversational potential to disrupt the whole system.

#OPTINK reflects the two main decision-factors when getting a tattoo: design and meaning.

Due to a cultural concern over data and privacy, there’s no national registry to keep a record of willing donors.

#OPTINK offers an indisputable way of documenting one’s decision, both on skin and on social platforms.

Which led to another cultural insight explored: the fact that the ink community is actively engaged in sharing their designs on social media. That was crucial in not only expanding the campaign’s reach, but also normalizing the topic’s discussion.

Willingly turning social media into the national registry.

Germany has a key factor that makes organ donation harder to be documented: a general concern over data and privacy.

This can be seen in the fact that there is no national registry or any effective way of recording or tracking potential donors and their decision.

In other words, before #OPTINK, only the people that expressed their consent (via a card or a form) knew of their decision, unless they had informed someone.