Healthcare Marketing Impact Awards - 2023

Campaign: #TimeToMatch
Agency/Firm: XOMAD
Client: Be the Match

Convincing people to donate blood stem cells or bone marrow to strangers can be challenging, especially when those potential donors aren’t familiar with what the donation process involves or the impact their donation could have.

That’s why, when it came to recruiting potential Gen Z and millennial donors, blood stem cell registry Be The Match turned to one of those generations’ most trusted sources of information: social media influencers. The effort earned Be The Match silver for Social Media Campaign of the Year among advocacy groups in the Healthcare Marketing Impact Awards 2023.

Be The Match teamed up with influencer marketing agency XOMAD to mobilize dozens of nano- and micro-influencers across California and Texas to educate their followers about the importance of blood stem cell donations, demystify the donation process and encourage them to register as donors. The campaign, called #TimeToMatch, held personal significance for all 88 creators that the organization recruited, as many of them were healthcare workers, caregivers, registered donors or even blood cancer patients themselves.

In just two months, Be The Match reported that the social media push generated more than 350 posts across Instagram and TikTok that amassed a collective 5.6 million views. And more than 1.3 million residents of California and Texas—the campaign’s two target states—encountered the effort’s sponsored posts at least twice or even three times, helping to cement these influencers’ personal experiences with Be The Match and the benefits of blood stem cell donations in their minds, the organization reported.