Member Article

Karol Marketing execute innovative publicity stunt in Newcastle

Northumbria Blood Bikes has been capturing the attention of members of the public across the North East after it was chosen as the recipient of an innovative one day publicity campaign.

The charity, which provides an out-of-hours night and weekend service delivering blood products to North East hospitals, was selected by Newcastle-based creative agency, Karol Marketing, as the recipient of its Do It Day efforts – a global day of action organised in association with leading marketing title The Drum, that encourages agencies to raise awareness of an issue in one day.

The campaign, which saw eye-catching adverts appear on digital billboards and in public spaces across Newcastle city centre, was carried out to raise awareness of the charity’s life-saving efforts and has helped recruit more volunteers after being supported by a significant social media activation, as well as a creative stunt that saw volunteers appear across the city holding signs saying ‘Where is the #bloodbike?’

The Drum’s Do It Day event encourages creative agencies around the world to tackle an issue, in one day. It sees leading brands including Coca Cola, Airbnb and Amnesty International present agencies with real-life challenges linked to the environment, education & training, health & wellbeing, diversity, or community & commerce.

Karol Marketing chose Northumbria Blood bikes as the focus of their campaign after hearing that the charity had recently lost the vital support of a local call centre. As a result the charity’s 600 volunteers, including 130 riders who deliver life-saving blood supplies to local hospitals on weekends and between 7pm – 7am on weekdays are increasingly stretched. With the cold weather setting in and a four-day Christmas period looming, the group is calling on people to come forward and offer their support.

Charity spokeswoman Kirsty Lawrence commented “Northumbria Blood Bikes are in need of more volunteers to help run this vital service. Every role in the organisation is manned by a volunteer, from making deliveries, to answering phones, acting as shift-co-ordinator or fundraising – there’s lots of ways for people to get involved.

“This year, with Christmas falling at the weekend, we’re going to need more support than ever, as the charity will be relied upon to deliver life-saving blood deliveries to local hospitals for four days from Friday 23rd December to Wednesday 28th December.

“We are overwhelmed by the opportunity offered to us by Karol Marketing. The Do It Day campaign has helped to raise awareness of our cause and drive the number of volunteers we need to help keep our service running.”

Stefan Lepkowski, managing director of Karol Marketing, commented, “Do It Day is a fantastic way for the industry to come together to raise awareness of relevant issues and we are honoured to be leading this initiative outside of London for the first time. We would also like to thank all of the companies and organisations that have offered their support – we really couldn’t have delivered the campaign without them.”

The following businesses have supported the campaign: Forrest Media (digital advertising space), Primesight (digital advertising space), Clearchannel (digital advertising space), City

Outdoor (digital advertising space), George Bosynak (photographer), Pigs Might Fly (theatrical blood), Elanders (printing), and Newcastle University Theatre Society (volunteers).

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Harry Robinson .