Most blood and organ benefactors wonder how their donations are going to be used when they leave the help center. After receiving a ‘thank you’, they leave satisfied, but the experience can have the ability to fill up that gap of not knowing how their good-will is going to be utilized in the future.
Swedish blood donators don’t live with this doubt because after their donation, Independent says, “People who donate initially receive a ‘thank you’ text when they give blood, but they get another message when their blood makes it into somebody else’s veins.” This SMS alerts them with timely information on where the blood is headed to and when it has been used.
The initiative started in 2012 by the Stockholm blood donation service, Blodcentralen, to combat blood stock shortages and mainly concentrating on keeping its existing blood donors and eventually reaching out to new ones.
The blood shortages were linked to how the centers, recurrently, did not have certain blood types available those being the most uncommon. Since hanging up sings of the missing blood types was not enough, they came up with the text message idea which ends up attracting more people for a special reason.
This project acted like a raised alarm towards the citizens because it had been identified a fall on blood donations in which at that time they had, “40 percent fewer donors today than there were ten years ago.” During, it was needed around 204,000 new volunteers to give blood to keep the blood stock at a safe level but sadly today it is still not far from that number.
Digital Journal reported that in Sweden the main issue that exists is that there are around 410,000 registered blood donors but only some of the 250,000 donate blood annually. That is the main reason why their health authorities are working to elevate this number along with the help of text messaging.
The second dilemma that has been pointed out is how there are fewer sign-ups for this offering and all of the ones that are signed up are not regular donators. But, as previously mentioned, these problems have been addressed with the assistance of SMS.
It has gotten the attention of a wide audience because those benefactors receive positive response on their effort on how they have helped citizens, which at the end stimulates them to donate again. It owns the power to awaken the public in understanding the important this kind of contribution holds.
Besides the contagious consciousness of this idea, the main goal here is to share how when shortfalls happen and the exact remaining stock of blood is being shared, new people will respond and not just the recurrent, ordinary donators.
Other entities from Europe such as the NHS Blood and Transplant service are joining on this viral marketing campaign to accentuate the necessity of blood stock for current and later patients. “While we can meet the needs of patients now, it’s important we strengthen the donor base for the future.”
The Stockholm blood service has hopes of this strategy to help them lessen shortages, which in the World Health Organization website it states that communications manager Karolina Blom Wiberg, “We are convinced the SMS builds loyalty and the donors love getting them. They hit you right in the gut when you think that someone has in this instant been helped by my blood.”
With this marketing campaign, Sweden identifies that when there is communication with the benefactors of blood, these helps raise the number of new donors. Text Local describes this act as owning, “A high level of intrinsic value,” that is the essential nature and constitution of it which ends up building a connection towards the person and the entire journey of their donation.
A story of how this marketing campaign reached its goal can be seen with citizen Arvid öhlin from Amsterdam. Öhlin is considered a veteran donor because he has been a benefactor 26 times since age 19. He recalls the first time he experienced such, shared by “I was at home the first time I got the thank you SMS. It felt good and made me happy. It is really nice to get a confirmation that your blood is used.”Although text messaging has been applied to medical services such as reminding people for their appointment, this method is indeed a powerful manner to utilize text messaging. By the help of this creation and the positive outcome the public has shown, other places such as Stockholm have been adapting to this new trend.
But, there still exists an effort and hope for other countries to join into this initiative. An Instagram poll survey, that lasted eight hours, was conducted on citizens most in their early 20’s from the United States. It started with a brief introduction to the start and purpose of Sweden’s plan, followed by three questions with the answer choices of ‘yes’ or ‘no’.
It was a casual, short survey decided to be created towards the younger generation because the blood donation centers want to start attracting them into donating. Since most of the benefactors are the older generations, including parents or grandparents, these center’s goal is to make sure they have enough supply, mainly for the future.
To gain their accurate and honest opinion, the survey was easy to understand and quick for them to go through. This was on an Instagram Story with five slides, one introductory, three with questions, and the last one with a ‘thank you’ note.
The first premise, “Would you find this weird?”, where 88% chose that it wasn’t. Followed by, “Do you think this can drive more blood donations?”, had a successful outcome with 85% on its favor. The third one being, “Should the USA implement this?”, in which 92% chose the answer ‘yes’.
There is no doubt that Sweden’s text message idea can also work in the United States since people now a day people feel the need to obtain some kind of validation through important actions such as donations, but mainly those for blood.