What on earth do vampires, blood banks and advertising have in common? At first glance, they seem completely unrelated and nonsensical. But when you consider them within the context of the Australian TV calendar, you soon realise that these 3 elements have much more in common. In fact, they are so tightly intertwined, that the Winter of 2010 presents the Australian advertising industry with an extremely unique opportunity.
Let me explain…my rather distorted/alternate market observations:
Firstly, True Blood Season 3 will debut in Australia in Winter, on August 19.
Secondly, Winter seasonally marks the lowest levels of blood donations to the Australian Red Cross Blood Service (people fall sick during Winter and donation rates drop dramatically). It also marks the period when donor campaigns are ramped up to obtain more blood.
The extremely unique opportunity here, is to capitalise on the business needs of both organisations and go to the Australian market with a co-branded campaign. Both organisations will benefit from significant national exposure in the lead up to True Blood’s third season debut. This will also continue to persist during the season’s broadcast. Additionally, the Australian Red Cross Blood Service will potentially benefit from increased quantities of new donors or existing donors donating blood during the Winter season.
Why does this idea work?
It’s vastly different.
Globally, I think this may be a first, where an international premium cable-television network teams up with a local humanitarian, non-government organisation to support a blood drive campaign. The closest the Australian Red Cross Blood Service has come to partnering with a media-related organisation is the 2010 Open Air Cinemas in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. According to @redcrossbloodau, their “presence at the event was focused on raising awareness of the need for blood, rather than donations”.
This campaign will be like a breath of fresh air, for the general public, and it will instantly grab their attention.
It’s bold & edgy.
The Australian Red Cross Blood Service will be taking a huge leap away from it’s current marketing strategy and will be definitely pushing the packet. What is exciting about this is that it’s bold and edgy: it shows the versatility of the Australian Red Cross Blood Service to adopt an alternate market position, one within international, mainstream television media.
And it’s not THAT risky.
Vampirism is nothing new for the Australian Red Cross Blood Service. For example, it currently works in conjunction with the Australian Medical Students’ Association (AMSA) on an annual blood drive competition known as the Vampire Cup. It also coordinates the Vampire Shield program at Queanbeyan High School during June and July. As such, affiliating the Australian Red Cross Blood Service brand with the True Blood vampire theme won’t be an issue.
What will be issues though, are the other connotations associated with the True Blood series – the vulgarity, graphic violence, racism and nudity. I however, think this can be overcome – it depends on the angle of the True Blood series, which is marketed to the public. Furthermore, most of the public will understand that the motive for the co-branding is for a good cause. In this case, I believe the greater good will significantly outweigh any negative connotations.
What do you think? Putting aside the short time frame to execute an advertising campaign like this, do you think a co-branded approach would even work?
Drop a comment below & hit me back with some ideas 
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Whilst I think it’s a great idea, I do think that the issue you touched on above on the ‘vulgar’ nature of the show might not be the best fit.
After all, after watching even just one episode of True Blood, you can see that the show is just as much about sex and violence as it is about vampires. This would be a risky for the Red Cross to associate with.
There might be opportunities to collaborate with more, for lack of a better term, ‘family friendly’ franchises such as Vampire Diaries even…. Twilight.
In any case, I think it would be a fresh approach for Red Cross to take, because Vampires are like, so in right now!
I like this true blood tribute:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8tODhvb47s
I haven’t seen any True Blood but I agree with above comment, Twilight could be a better fit (more family friendly). There is violence in those movies as well but what Vampire movie doesn’t!
However, what’s the core audience you are trying to attract to donate blood? I would have thought that True Blood would have a younger skew but it might not necessarily be the only audience they want.
I like the idea of teaming up with a vampire franchise, but I’m not sure if True Blood is the best choice. Something more tame and fluffy like Twilight is probably the better idea.
True Blood basically uses the acceptance of vampires in society as a metaphor for how the United States regards the gay community and the gay rights struggle. Considering that the Red Cross still doesn’t allow blood donations from sexually active gay males it may seem a little strange that they team up with a brand like True Blood. This co branding approach will probably attract more unwanted attention to the policy and further emphasise the double standards that exist.
I agree that the co branding is a good idea. Just go with something more conservative and family friendly like the Twilight series.
@yasmin @inspiredworlds
Thanks for the feedback. It was this ‘fresher’ approach to co-branding which I thought was exciting.
Interesting point you raise with the other Vampire “family friendly franchises” and I completely see where you’re coming from on this.
However, considering the minimum age to donate is 16 years (without parental consent in some Australian states), does it really need to be AS “family friendly” as at Twilight or a Vampire Diaries? The Red Cross Blood Service, by nature, does not target children or a really young audience. As such, the core audience I would target, through this campaign, would be younger adults. It is because of this minimum age limit that I think the “family friendliness” is ‘somewhat’ less relevant. It is because of this minimum age limit that I think some slack exists around pushing the boundaries of advertising to a more daring and exciting(?) campaign? (Thanks @c0uP for the pointed question around the minimum age).
@Pat
As for True Blood using the acceptance of vampires in society as a metaphor for how the United States regards the gay community and the gay rights struggle…I can’t really comment. I had never seen that angle before. Do we know how strongly does this theme resounds amongst the Australian viewers?
According to the Red Cross Blood Service, the deferral of males who have had male to male sex is based on 2 factors: the statistically higher incidence of some blood borne diseases (such as HIV) and the existence of ‘window period’ infections. Anyone who has engaged in male to male sex is deferred by the Blood Service from blood donation for a period of 12 months following the last occurrence of such activity.
@Jordan
Maybe I shouldn’t have stated United States, I thought it was a pretty obvious metaphor that they were drawing. One of the advertisements that True Blood ran bore the statement “God Hates Fangs” on it. Which is a very tongue in cheek allusion to the “God Hates Fags” motto of the Westboro Baptist Church. “Author Charlaine Harris — who wrote the best-selling Sookie Stackhouse mystery novels that the TV show is based on — hoped fans would pick up on the link between vampire rights and gay rights when she published the first book in 2001″ (from here). So I don’t think the theme is just noticed by viewers in the United States but those from all over.
I’m aware of the terms of the policy, it’s just it’s already gained a lot of negative attention especially within the gay community (article from SameSame here and I think that a co-branding approach with True Blood may just reignite the issue.
I might’ve been looking into it too much and drawing some abstract conclusions. But it was honestly the first thing that came to my mind.
I ran your idea by a couple of other people and both agreed that a co-branding ad campaign is a great idea for such a good cause like blood donations but they also questioned with True Blood was an appropriate choice of partner. As I mentioned before, Twilight is a much better choice (or a similar more family friendly brand). I noticed you mentioned that Twilight is targeted towards 16 year olds but there’d also be a lot of other older fans (personally I’m not one of them), but there are those scary 40 year fiendish Twilight obsessed women. An advertising campaign like that would grab my attention and make me think about donating if I liked Twilight or not.
As a side note, and just to make this comment even longer, I do enjoy reading your blog. And have found a lot of your posts very interesting and enjoyable to read. :]
Hey Pat,
Really appreciate the feedback and the links you provided. I’ve learnt a new thing and will be watching True Season 3 with a fresh pair of eyes
Considering the evidence you’ve put forward, I definitely don’t think you’ve looking into it too much. It’s great being able to bring all these different perspectives into a common forum for discussion. There seems to be a strong push for the co-branding effort with a ‘family friendly’ brand, and I can now see how this is a safer and ‘more palatable’ partnership (mind the pun).
As a final note, it’s really encouraging to hear you enjoy reading my blog.
I sincerely appreciate all the feedback you’ve provided and love the discussions we’ve had
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