Voluntary sector: Footballers kick-start blood cancer cause

Campaign: Give Blood Cancer the Red Card
Client: Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research
PR team: In-house
Timescale: January-February 2012
Budget: £1,000

OBJECTIVES

• To raise awareness of blood cancer, the charity and its events, and the hospital's involvement in the new network.

STRATEGY AND PLAN

Ex-footballer and leukaemia survivor Geoff Thomas had a pre-event photo-shoot with Coventry player Carl Baker, whose elder brother died of leukaemia. On match day, Thomas led the teams, who warmed up in charity-branded T-shirts, on to the pitch with two local children who were being treated for leukaemia. A Twitter and Facebook campaign ran in the week leading up to the event.

MEASUREMENT AND EVALUATION

The campaign generated national TV coverage on the BBC's The Football League Show and Late Kick Off. Thomas was interviewed on TalkSport radio.

RESULTS

There were 120 clickthroughs from Twitter to the campaign web page, 118 shares on Facebook and £1,000 was raised.