The Sabre Awards 2024 ceremony took place in London last night, with HAVAS Red being awarded the EMEA Regional Midsize Agency of the Year and HAVAS Red UK securing a win in the Community Relations category for its ‘National Blood Week 2023: Giving Type’ campaign.

The campaign addressed one key challenge: How do you inspire Black audiences — which are diverse, disparate and historically distrustful of medical institutions and governments — to give blood? NHS Blood and Transplant tasked HAVAS Red UK with recruiting blood donors from Black communities to satisfy demand for rare blood types that can help treat sickle cell (a genetic blood disorder) in England. 

We shortlisted five individuals from different Black communities across the country who give blood on a regular basis — “Giving Types”. We partnered with Ghanaian-British street artist, Dreph, to put these donors on a national stage, where Dreph painted a 20-foot mural Stockwell that featured the likenesses of each ‘Giving Type’ blood donor. The unveiling of the mural marked our launch moment, at the start of National Blood Week on June 12. 

Coverage highlights included:

• 11 broadcast hits including on Sky News, Good Morning Britain, ITV News and BBC News.
• Exclusive mural build capture featured in The Guardian’s and pickup in Independent, Mail Online and Mirror Online totaling nine national hits and five national news on social media.
• Dreph and the project team were interviewed by UK’s Press Association, which was syndicated in over 140 regional news outlets.
• Getty photography at the mural, with Getty images featured across Time Out social media channels. 

More importantly, National Blood Week alone brought over 10,000 new registrations to donate blood and new registrations by Black donors were up 153% compared to average — which is 38% more than National Blood Week 2022.