Avis is an Italian blood donor association.　They asked us for help with recruiting more young blood donors. Most young Italian people don’t donate blood because they are unaware and not personally affected by a situation that demands blood. The demand of blood seems very distant. We wanted to bring the demand closer. So we asked our target a simple question: Will you save a friend?'Save a friend' is an idea to create a demand for blood where friendships are shared: on Facebook. A video on Facebook, customised with photos of the user who posted it, described a dramatic situation through the users point of view. One of your friend posts on Facebook a video of them being rescued by an ambulance. As the situation gets worse their life starts to rush in front of your eyes. As 'life rushed' before the viewers eyes by using the selected Facebook photos, the question was asked: 'Will you save a friend?' With this personalised interactive scenario we made people understand, even a friend can need blood. As more people personalised their own videos, we reached more friends and friends of friends. An impersonal quest turned into a personal cause and thousands of friends helped us share it through the fundamentals of Facebook.

The creative proposal was tested in March 2011 in order to understand the impact of the initiative through the young target and to ensure that the tone of voice of the viral video would be in line with the youth sensibility. After the good result of the research we followed the original plan to implement it on Facebook in Autumn. The initiative is online and it will remain live until a new initiative is developed in the next future.

The Facebook activity was launched the 8th of November.The viral video on Facebook immediately caught the young community attention. More than 1,500 visitors in the first 4 days from the launch. We developed a profile image with a blood drop that says, 'I will save a life'. Facebook soon became populated by blue and red drops. The major health and young blogs have given it buzz and we are expecting yet a bigger increase of the customized video penetration on Facebook and a related increase of requests of information and donation from young adults.