Life-Saving Brands
By ANA Staff
Many brands sell products or services that can make your life easier, like helping you find the perfect outfit or delivering food directly to your door. But what about brands that can actually save your life? These five brands developed campaigns and products to bring awareness to health and natural disaster issues and save lives.
- Hashtags for Life: Peru has a population of more than 30 million people, but the database of voluntary blood donors was significantly smaller. The Peruvian Red Cross encouraged people to use a hashtag to share their blood type on social media. The hashtags were stored in a database that the Peruvian Red Cross then used to contact people directly in emergency or crisis situations for blood donation.
- Life-Saving Helmet: To combat high rates of motorcycle accidents in Thailand, the Thai Health Promotion Foundation developed an advanced motorcycle helmet with built-in technology capable of alerting emergency services. In the instance of severe head trauma, an SMS with the rider’s emergency contact, geolocation, and important health information is sent directly to the National Emergency Center.
- ManBoobs: Breast self-examinations are highly recommended for early detection of breast cancer. MACMA created a series of tutorial videos to teach women how to perform a breast self-examination. Since women’s nipples are often censored on social media, the women featured in the videos “borrowed” men’s breasts to demonstrate step-by-step techniques.
- Life Signal: When an earthquake or other natural disasters strike, cellular networks can often be destroyed. Unacem developed an app that allowed families to reunite in natural disaster situations. Users download the app and create a group with their family members and loved ones. The app collects GPS data, syncing all group members’ coordinates to the cloud every six minutes. When a disaster occurs, the app uses an algorithm to suggest optimal assembly points based on all members’ coordinates.
- The Story of an Unborn Child: Nearly six million children die every year before their fifth birthday due to an absence of basic hygiene. Lifebuoy — an antibacterial soap brand — created a film about the emotional journey of a pregnant mother and the importance of handwashing during infancy. The film received a boost from “mommy” bloggers and other media influencers, helping push Lifebuoy to the third most purchased fast-moving consumer goods brand in the world.
For a deeper look at how other brands are contributing to and shedding light on worthy causes, check out this ANA Insight Brief on cause marketing.