It seems every day brings a new cause to support. Charities are constantly pushing their barrow into our lives with some national awareness month, week, day, hour, minute, second…whatever. Ads with desperately cute but painfully sad looking children appear everywhere, designed to tug at the heart strings – and more often than not the wallet. Amongst this torrent of worthy persuasion, is a communications professional poised to bombard every newsdesk in town to drive their message home.
For all not-for-profits the challenge of influencing journalists and convincing media decision-makers of the value of your cause is relentless. Sometimes it can be met with an air of indifference. Indeed a recent conversation with one particular journalist went something like this… “I need something more newsworthy. Find me someone who’s dying!”
In working at Network PR I’ve been able to work for the NZ Blood Service (NZBS), and I know from personal experience the importance of blood donation. My grandmother passed away twelve years ago after a long illness, but without the people who donated the blood she regularly received, she would have died a lot sooner.
World Blood Donor Day is the NZ Blood Service’s main annual campaign and happens to be celebrated in this country on Friday 12 June. The campaign is largely driven by the World Health Organisation who decides on its annual theme. As in other years, we have the challenge of creating attention.
One of the pluses for the New Zealand Blood Service is its point of difference: it is not seeking money. And in the current climate this is quite significant. People who donate blood save lives – simple as that. And all it costs is about an hour of time.
Currently around 4% of New Zealanders donate blood without incentive or remuneration. Some have their own personal stories for this. Others simply donate for no other reason than it’s a good thing to do.
Annually around 42,000 people need this blood, many unexpectedly, others regularly. Statistically there is a good chance we’ll all have a need for blood at some point.
As far as I’m concerned that’s the best reason of all for taking special note of World Blood Donor Day and the work of the NZ Blood Service.
Winning is nice. There’s no getting round that fact that to come out on top feels damn good, even if as New Zealanders we’re not very good at saying so. What’s better still is winning for the work that you enjoy doing everyday and it’s a double bonus when somebody notices.