Over 500,000 lives are lost in India every year waiting for organ transplants. Yet, India’s organ donation rate is one of the lowest in the world. It stands at just 0.86 organ donors per million population.

The brief from our client, Fortis Hospitals, was to come up with a creative idea that addresses the serious problem and encourages Indians to pledge for donating their organs after death.

The reason for Indians not donating organs is their deep-rooted cultural beliefs. In India, organ donation is a taboo as mutilating the body after death is seen as dishonoring the dead.

Which meant the barrier for becoming an organ donor was much bigger and needed a powerful idea to create a behavioural change.

Our objective was to inspire people to pledge their organs by changing their perspective towards organ donation and thus enable India to look beyond this cultural taboo.

Source: NOTTO

Our strategy was to break the cultural barrier and make people see organ donation as an act of honor.

So, drawing inspiration from the heroic send offs given to martyrs with their bodies wrapped in the national flag, we decided to create a special shroud for organ donors.

The shroud was designed using 3 dots as the organ donation symbol — one dot means the end, three mean continuity of life... as per Hindu belief of reincarnation. The colors, white and saffron, symbolize purity and salvation in Hindu culture.

After launching the shroud with the support of some of the world’s top cricketers, we tied-up with NDTV, India’s leading news channel, to spread the message further. It not only gave us the reach, but also helped educate and bust myths around organ donation.

Advocacy was heightened at on-ground events like walkathons for organ donation where people could pledge to donate

Fortis had been conducting Organ Donation drives for past 3 years under its platform – More to Give. But the rates continued to be abysmally low.

We realised lack of awareness and intent wasn’t holding Indians back from becoming donors — the cultural belief that organ donation means mutilating the deceased and therefore dishonouring them, was the reason.

Our strategy was to flip this narrative and make people see organ donation as an act of honor.

Since the solution rested in countering a cultural belief, we adopted an unconventional PR led approach. We strategically used leading international cricketers to kick-off the campaign through a grand event where they presented the special shrouds to the donors’ families.

Education and myth busting were key pillars that were amplified through a

45-minute program on NDTV, radio shows on 92.7 Big FM, a 3-minute film on digital and spreading the message through celebrities.

It started with the creation of an organ donation symbol. Then, at the launch event, the symbol was unveiled and a special shroud with the symbol was presented to donors’ families.

The launch took place with the support of ‘Delhi Capitals’, a leading Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket team, which had some of the world's top cricketers.

Post launch, we partnered with NDTV, India's leading news channel, to start a nationwide debate on the taboo around organ donation.

40 Indian celebrities, including Indian Olympians and Bollywood stars, got inspired and joined in to support us on social media.

The campaign created huge buzz generating over 20 million digital impressions, most of which were organic. And sparked off discussions on other mediums like Radio, print and TV.

Once the entire nation was talking about it, walkathons were organized across India to get organ donation pledges on the spot.

Source: Client data

MEDIA OUTPUTS AND TARGET AUDIENCE OUTCOMES

• The campaign resulted in 50% increase in organ donations in Fortis Hospitals over the previous year

• A staggering 70,000 pledges, potentially saving 70,000 lives in the future

• 20,000 Pledges in a single day from Walkathons organized for Organ Donation across 12 Indian cities

• Over 40 Indian celebrities, including Indian Olympians, Bollywood stars and other thought leaders joined in to support the campaign.

• The campaign created huge buzz generating over 20 million digital impressions, most of which were organic.

• The digital film was shared widely, garnering over 18 million views on YouTube and Facebook.

• The campaign trended on Twitter India twice, generating overall 1,80,000+ digital engagements on social media platforms

BUSINESS OUTCOMES

• The CSR campaign had a huge positive rub-off on the Fortis brand which saw a whopping increase in positive sentiment and awareness.

• The association with ‘responsibility towards society’ for brand Fortis increased by 2X when compared to the competition.

• The perception of ‘taking good care of patients’ saw a significant jump of 5%, thereby surpassing the competition and becoming the leader in the category.

Source: Client data