NHS Blood & Transplant: Missing Type
NHS Blood & Transplant wanted a campaign to address the critical shortage of blood donors. The client needed to dramatically increase registrations by making the public understand the vital importance of blood types A, B, and O. The challenge for AMV BBDO was to create a memorable, impactful campaign that resonated with a broad audience, encouraging them to sign up and save lives.
Creative Idea
NHS Blood & Transplant removed A, B, O letters from public spaces, demonstrating the societal gaps caused by missing blood types.
NHS Blood & Transplant created a unique campaign that removed the letters A, B, and O (blood types) from various public spaces to highlight the critical need for blood donors. The campaign visually demonstrated how missing blood types can create gaps in society, encouraging people to register as blood donors and help save lives.
The Global Vanishing Act of A B and O
A Masterclass in Brand De-Branding
The campaign achieved the near - impossible by convincing over 1,000 global brands to violate their own strict brand guidelines. Giants like Google, Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, and Microsoft voluntarily scrubbed their logos of the letters A, B, and O. This "disruptive" model was executed in three distinct phases: a Teaser where letters vanished without explanation, a Reveal to explain the shortage, and a Momentum phase to drive registrations. One of the most difficult logistical hurdles involved the UK Cabinet Office, which eventually granted permission to remove the "O" from the iconic 10 Downing Street sign.
Massive Impact on a Modest Budget
Despite its global footprint, the initial 2015 launch was executed on a relatively small budget of £110,000. The efficiency was staggering: NHSBT reported a 1,000% increase in web traffic over the launch weekend and 30,000 new donors in the first ten days alone - an 8x increase over the weekly average. By the 2016 global expansion, which spanned 21 countries, the campaign reached over 2 billion people. The Daily Mirror even issued a full print run of 600,000 copies with a masthead missing its A and O.
Reaching New Communities
The 2016 push utilized high - profile talent to reach specific demographics, including Gemma Styles, who teased the campaign to her millions of followers, and Olympic boxer Nicola Adams. A critical focus was placed on the BAME (Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic) community, resulting in a 141% increase in registrations from those groups. As PR Week Editor John Harrington noted, the campaign "blew the PR industry away" by turning an invisible medical shortage into a tangible, visual void in everyday life.
Creative Strategy Deconstructed
Company
NHS Blood & Transplant holds the authority over the nation's blood supply, possessing the unique intellectual property of the A, B, and O blood group classifications.
Category
Healthcare charities typically rely on guilt-tripping imagery or clinical hospital settings that people instinctively tune out or find intimidating.
Customer
Potential donors feel a general altruistic intent but lack the immediate, visceral realization that their specific blood type is a missing piece of a puzzle.
Culture
In a world of brand-saturated environments, the sudden, unexplained disappearance of familiar visual elements creates an irresistible curiosity and a drive to solve the mystery.
Company
NHS Blood & Transplant holds the authority over the nation's blood supply, possessing the unique intellectual property of the A, B, and O blood group classifications.
Category
Healthcare charities typically rely on guilt-tripping imagery or clinical hospital settings that people instinctively tune out or find intimidating.
Strategy:
Weaponize the absence of A, B, and O letters to visualize the life-threatening gaps in the national blood supply.
Customer
Potential donors feel a general altruistic intent but lack the immediate, visceral realization that their specific blood type is a missing piece of a puzzle.
Culture
In a world of brand-saturated environments, the sudden, unexplained disappearance of familiar visual elements creates an irresistible curiosity and a drive to solve the mystery.
Strategy:
Weaponize the absence of A, B, and O letters to visualize the life-threatening gaps in the national blood supply.
Results
The campaign generated huge awareness. The missing letters caught the attention of the media, generating over £1.2 million in earned media value. It reached an audience of 147 million people. Most importantly, the campaign led to 30,000 people registering to give blood, which represents a 100% increase on the previous year's National Blood Week. Of these registrations, 10,000 were new donors, and specifically, 5,000 of them were of the blood types that were urgently needed (A, B, O).
30,000
registrations to give blood
100%
increase in registrations from previous year
£1.2 million
earned media value
Strategy Technique
Make the Invisible Visible
The campaign made the abstract, often overlooked importance of specific blood types visible. By removing A, B, O from public spaces, it highlighted their critical role and the impact of their absence.
Explore Technique
Creative Technique
Dramatize the Problem
The campaign physically removed letters A, B, O from public spaces. This dramatically visualized the critical shortage of blood types, making an abstract problem tangible and urgent.
Explore Technique
Craft Breakdown
This campaign's craft is exceptional for its singular, ingenious design idea that transformed a critical public health message into a captivating, participatory, and visually striking national event.
The core concept of removing letters (A, B, O) to symbolize missing blood types is a brilliant, simple, and universally understandable design solution that drives immediate comprehension and engagement.
The consistent and meticulous application of the 'missing type' visual motif across diverse brand identities, physical spaces, and digital media demonstrates strong, cohesive art direction.
The concise and powerful messaging, particularly the '#MissingType' hashtag, effectively communicates the campaign's purpose and call to action with memorable clarity.
The practical execution of altering real-world signage, newspapers, and creating props for participants showcases a robust and effective production design that brought the abstract idea to life.
The campaign's magic truly comes from the seamless synergy between the ingenious core design concept and its broad, integrated execution across multiple media and partners, making the message unavoidable and impactful.
