NHS – Be A Hero

What we did

New Brand
Guerrilla Marketing
Masks
Promotional Print
Event Stands and Graphics
Event Clothing and Costumes

Our brief

Leeds Teaching Hospital NHS Trust a client of PR agency Hatch Communications asked them help them grow the Yorkshire Donor Register. Hatch and CODA collaborated together to develop a new identity for a concept called ‘Be A Hero’

The idea was that you don’t have to be a superhero to save someone’s life, signing up to the donor register can make you someone’s hero too.

The branding had to be fun and engaging whist communicating the serious side to the donor register.

How we did it

CODA explored the superhero angle of the concept and we decided from the start of the project to use bold punchy superhero colours and styles, we developed a masked superhero figure in red and blue, classic superhero colours! Whilst we wanted the figure to be memorable and engaging we still wanted to keep the anonymous aspect of masked superheroes and we felt this dovetailed nicely in to the nature of the donor register. Our Be A Hero character could therefore be me, you or anyone for that matter.

Once the brand was established we rolled it out further creating masks that people could wear when they had signed up to the register, to take photos and share on social media. We also created a life size figure, floor stickers, postcards, badge stickers, a branded superhero costume, T shirts  and a photo wall for sign up events in Leeds and Wakefield.

Prior to the events Hatch Communications did several Guerrilla marketing activities dressed in the Be A Hero costume such as running, jumping and walking through busy Leeds streets, superhero style! These activities and the wider campaign gained exposure in regional newspapers and Calendar – regional TV news.

Many personalities have also kindly backed the campaign to help further its reach such as Sir Geoffrey Boycott, Sir Patrick Stewart OBE, Joe Root, Leeds United, Sheffield Wednesday, Downton Abbey actor Jim Carter, Journalist Maggie Philbin and Sarah Ferguson – The Duchess of York, who is the campaign patron.

The campaign has been a huge success with over 18,000 people signing the register in just two months and we are hoping to roll out the concept to new regions soon.

We hope many more people in Yorkshire will be touched by the Be A Hero campaign so that in future everyone in Yorkshire gets a transplant in time.

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