Paper beats cancer.

How humble, handwritten letters persuaded thousands to save a life.

BE THE MATCH (THE NATIONAL MARROW DONOR PROGRAM)

The Challenge:

Be The Match finds blood stem cell and bone marrow donors for patients with blood diseases like leukemia and sickle cell anemia. And while all donations are important, those coming from men ages 18-34 are both the hardest to acquire and the most in need. Those cell and marrow donations typically lead to the strongest outcomes for patients, so how could Be The Match increase general brand awareness and motivate new male donors to come forward?

The Solution:

Studies of donors show a larger empathy gap in men than women, with men less likely to donate. Conversely, men are more inclined to engage in prosocial behaviors when they perceive themselves to have a high degree of agency and control over the situation. Unfortunately, with stem cell donations, the recipients are usually anonymous, so the donor lacks that agency.

One recipient’s note. That’s all it took. To make us cry. To reward the donors who selflessly donated. To persuade an army of new donors to join the cause.

We follow our protagonist through the hero’s journey, from his mundane commute to his life-changing decision to donate. Each moment is rich with foreshadowing, signifying there’s a bigger purpose out there. All the while, his story is narrated by an 8-year-old recipient’s letter back to his donor. The feedback loop this audience craves is presented clear as day. We then built out the campaign further, leveraging real letters from recipients, anonymized and read by actors, across channels to tell truly heart-warming stories and appeal to all the future heroes and donors out there.

AWARDS: Gold Muse Award: Public Service and Activism

Landing page

Audio recordings of real donor recipient letters.