Behaviour change agency 23red partnered with NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) to launch the ‘Pass it On’ campaign, raining awareness of the upcoming change in legislation around organ donation, whereby England will move from an ‘opt in’ to an ‘opt out’ programme.

In light of a recent survey showing that only 37% of 16 to 17-year-olds were aware of the upcoming change in the law, 23red worked on a strategy to reach the teen target audience with the help of five young creatives. Aged between 16 and 21, they joined 23red for a paid Hothouse Week to work on the live brief of the ‘Pass It On’ campaign, bringing new insight and fresh ideas to the table.

“Giving over creative control to a set of very talented young people was initially daunting but proved to be an absolute joy with fantastic results thanks to a collaborative and brave client and the young people’s amazing enthusiasm, insight and skills,” says creative director of 23red Tristan Cavanagh.

The young creatives produced videos, graphics and social posts to make the campaign not only educational but also interesting for teenagers to engage with. The social post tagline ‘9 lives, 2 minutes, 1 decision’ is specifically designed to empower teenagers to make a choice on donation and encourage them to opt in to becoming a donor.  On Valentine’s Day, the social posts went live on Instagram and Snapchat and will also be shared with influencers and partner organisations.

“From our research and public surveys, we know that young people are less likely to be aware of the law change and less likely to read or engage with traditional media. We knew that we had to be creative and think differently in order to reach people from this age group, and what better way could there be to do this, than by asking young people to design and create the content themselves,” says Andrea Ttofa, head of organ donation marketing at NHSBT.

The new ‘opt out’ law, which will come into effect in the spring, means that those over the age of 18 in England will be considered organ donors when they die, unless they have opted not to do so.

NHS Blood and Transplant has, for the past few years, unveiled new campaigns around Valentine’s Day to change the narrative around organ donation. Previous campaigns can be found here, here and here.

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