The RGB News activated a whole nation for one week during live TV news. Its mission was to get people to “invade” donation centers during the 7 days campaign. Because the end goal was to amend the sad reality of blood transfusions in Romania.

Big or small, flat screen or LED, the TV is a prized possession for Romanians. For Observator, Antena 1’s prime time news program, the TV was the perfect Trojan Horse for good. By hijacking the TV watching experience, the TV turned into the perfect activation tool.

By simply removing the red component from the screen’s RGB colors, every televiewer experienced how life without blood looks like. The effect was an 80% nationwide blood donation increase within the week of the campaign, the direct response needed to force the Government to notice and react.

No more than 17 people out of 1000 donate blood, leaving Romania at the bottom of blood donation ranking in Europe. At the same time, 8 out of 10 Romanians watch TV daily, especially during prime time. Most of them tune in to Antena 1, top TV station in Romania.

To change the blood donation statistics, Antena 1 set to turn passive televiewers into active blood donors. Because, if enough people would talk about the blood donation issues, if more people would give blood during the campaign, than the Romanian authorities would have no choice but to notice and react.

During the seven days campaign blood donation became a hot topic on all media. Within one week, the number of blood donors nationwide increased by 80%. Only in Bucharest, the daily average of donors was 335, compared to 180-200 before the campaign.

10 million Romanians witnessed the campaign on TV, while the aggregate number of views reached 160 million views. 30,000 Romanians actively joined the campaign on Facebook by removing the red from their profile pictures. More than 4.5 million saw the campaign on Facebook or on other platforms. The widespread coverage generated an earned media equivalent of 1.2 million EUR.

The Romanian Health Minister of Health and the Secretary of State were compelled to react. They promised to open more transfusion blood centres (in January 2015, the second centre was opened) and signed a historic 300% budget increase for blood donations.

Because nobody should die from lack of blood.

Antena 1, top TV station in Romania, has a record of social campaigns presented during its prime time news program, Observator. These campaigns reflect Antena 1’s “Always Close” brand positioning. The main goal behind the social campaigns is to change Romania for the better.

At the end of April 2014, Observator had scheduled a new social campaign, this time tackling the subject of blood donations. The lowest number of blood donors in Europe and the lack of funds for blood transfusions in Romania were the main issues. To solve them, an entire nation needed to come together.

Using a simple metaphor live on the TV screen for one week, a TV station showed to a whole country how life without blood looks like. By doing this, Antena 1 got Romanians closer to each other around a national issue, proving once more its brand promise.