Title	THE RGB NEWS
Brand	ANTENA 1
Product/Service	OBSERVATOR
Category	A01. CORPORATE REPUTATION & COMMUNICATION
Entrant Company	GEOMETRY GLOBAL Bucharest, ROMANIA
Advertising Agency	GEOMETRY GLOBAL Bucharest, ROMANIA

Name	Company	Position
Mihai Fetcu	Geometry Global	Creative Director
Stefan Vasilachi	Geometry Global	Head Of Art
Sorana Somesan	Geometry Global	Senior Copywriter
Florina Alexandru	Geometry Global	Senior Art Director
Alex Petrescu	Geometry Global	Strategic Planner
Raluca Berceanu	Geometry Global	Senior Digital Account Manager
Radu Glont	Geometry Global	Account Director

The Campaign

No more than 14 people out of 1000 donate blood in Romania, leaving the country at the bottom of blood donation ranking in Europe. Thousands fall victims to lack of blood daily, but Romanians are concerned with mainly what happens in their own backyard. If other popular TV stations act as a video tabloid, Antena 1 has always been closer to its audience. Using a social angle, Antena 1 wanted to resign from a drama presenter role and turn people from passive televiewers into active blood donors in a way no other Romanian TV brand could. Antena 1 let Observator, its prime time news program, activate its strongest tool - the TV screen. For one week, viewers noticed that something on their screen was missing - the red component from the screen RGB colors - thus showing how life without blood feels like. On Facebook, the TV anchors were the first ones to remove red from their profile pictures, followed by tens of thousands Romanians. 14 million Romanians were reached, blood donations increased by 80% within 6 weeks. More than 30.000 people took the red color out of their Facebook profile pictures. The very good news were that the government signed an historic increase of 300% for the 2015 blood donations budget.

The Brief

The goal was clear - get more people to donate blood and change tomorrow’s news.

Results

14 million Romanians were reached within 4 weeks. More than 30.000 people took the red color out of their Facebook profile pictures. This resulted in an earned media equivalent valued at 1.2 million euros. But what’s more important is that the campaign met with a phenomenal response and impressive results to match: blood donations rose by 100% in the capital and 50% throughout the rest of the country. And the very good news were that the government increased its budget for blood donations by 300% as a direct result of the campaign.

Execution

For one week, Antena 1’s prime time news program showed its viewers how life without red felt like. News segments about victims due to lack of blood had something missing on the screen - the red component from the screen RGB colors. Shortly after the first RGB news, the Facebook app was launched. Antena 1’s anchor persons were the first ones to remove the color red from their profile pictures. The app was still in use 4 weeks after the start of the campaign.

The Situation

Everyday victims due to lack of blood dominate the news and public media, but Romanians are concerned with mainly what happens in their own backyard. Antena 1, top TV station in Romania, wanted to resign from its drama presenter role and turn people from passive televiewers into active blood donors.

The Strategy

Thousands fall victims to lack of blood daily, but Romanians are concerned with mainly what happens in their own backyard. People needed to care. The strategy was to change Observator from a broadcast news program to an unicast format. News were no longer presenting facts, they became personal. Nobody could stay indifferent. Using only the TV screen, we had to be disruptive right from the start. Removing the red component from the screen RGB colors helped start a real conversation about blood donations, moving it into people’s homes. Using the Facebook app, which removed red from profile pictures, the conversation was ongoing in their social lives too.