Organ donation after death is a sensitive topic all over the world, and is bound up with numerous preconceptions, personal fears and considerations. In many countries an opt-out policy applies: this means that the residents of that country automatically become organ donors unless they carry an opt-out document with them.

However, in contrast with other countries, in Germany you have to carry a signed organ donor card to indicate that you are a donor. This rather complicated opt-in solution means that Germany is in second-to-last place in Europe when it comes to organ donation. In this country, over 10,000 people are desperately depending on just 955 organ donors each year. On average, three people die every day as a result.

The foundation "Stiftung UEBER Leben" has set itself the goal of providing the basis for a personal and responsible debate on the topic of organ donation.

In order to achieve this, the foundation wants to remove emotional and organisational hurdles to generate more potential donors with the aid of campaigns, informative education and free organ donor cards.

Sometimes you need a radical approach to raise public awareness of a sensitive topic – especially if there’s no media budget available.

Our idea:

what if you could buy human organs online?

After all, you can order anything from home with a few clicks these days – with free delivery.

The interesting thing is that the majority of the German population is positive about organ donation after death, but simply haven’t got around to applying for an organ donor card yet.

But where does one draw attention to that topic in everyday life? In ordinary shopping madness.

So we looked for an online provider who was prepared to relax their sales regulations a little for our idea. We asked a far-reaching shopping platform to place a human heart at a bargain price alongside shoes, watches, clothes and all the everyday items that one might buy.

We found the perfect place at "bildshop.de". Here, we were able to place our unusual product on the sought-after teaser page. (BILD is a German high-circulation daily newspaper from the famous Axel-Springer-Verlag and has its own online shop.)

In a creative composition, adapted to all the other bargains and offers from big brands.

An offer that intrigued and confused people in equal measure. Many users wanted to know what was behind it. A heart for free?

With just one click, curious viewers were taken to a normal product page with all the usual sales information, reviews, detailed photos and product descriptions and recommended similar products. But suddenly the heart was no longer available.

Our accompanying text explained the background of the crisis and our campaign. In place of the ‘Buy now’ button, we added a button that took the user to the order form for a personal organ donor card.

A bold decision often pays off, as shown by fantastic CTR of 3.29% on bildshop.de.

Thanks to this unusual approach, "Stiftung UEBER Leben" was able to generate twice as many donors during the campaign period compared to the previous month. (+220%)

Furthermore, the approach was discussed in the media as a controversial issue and we made over 2.5 million contacts through our campaign – even without a media budget.

But the most important thing is that we sparked a public discussion about organ donation and made many people who were undecided aware of the issue. Now many people realise that you can’t buy life-saving treatment.