Assignment
Mikado was assigned by the luxembourgish Red Cross to develop a communication campaign that should motivate the people in Luxembourg to donate their blood. Furthermore, we took the opportunity to create a logo especially for the Blood Transfusion Centre (BTS) to strengthen the communication message. Thus, four different communication tracks were developed and put into a presentation to pitch at the meeting.
25.09.19: First meeting at Red Cross Luxembourg headquarters
For the first meeting, I accompanied the chairman (Jean-Luc Mines) and the creative director (Matthieu Dusart) at Mikado to the headquarters of the Red Cross. There we met Luc Scheer, the human resources director and Vincent Ruck, the head of communication at the Red Cross. In the conference room, we presented our ideas for the campaign step by step and explained what the advantages of each track were. Mr. Scheer and Mr. Ruck listened closely and commented on certain ideas. Finally, after presenting the four tracks, the two preferred ones (three and four) were discussed in more detail. This included how the campaign would look like on different platforms and how it could be elaborated on, especially regarding social media. Mr. Scheer and Mr. Ruck agreed that the fourth track was their preferred one, which we appreciated since it was ours as well. However, it was decided to present both the third and the fourth track again to the members of the BTS within two weeks’ time and see what they think since it is a collective decision. They also asked us to develop some more logos for the BTS and elaborate on ideas regarding goodies to give to the donors. After around two hours, we left with a good feeling, looking forward to the next meeting.
Between the meetings
In the period between the two meetings, we processed what was said. We created a new presentation, including only the two tracks we decided on in the first meeting. To show that we listened to their suggestions, we started working on new logos for the BTS immediately and we also elaborated a lot more on what can be done with the fourth track in terms of social media and other useful applications. Furthermore, we prepared print-outs of the posters for the campaign to illustrate it even better.
07.10.19: Second meeting at the BTS
Unlike the first meeting, the second meeting took place in a conference room at the BTS. Other than two members of the BTS that had joined us, it was the same group as the previous time. Without further ado, we started presenting the two tracks again. Since there were more people, there was also a bit more discussion. The outcome, however, was the same: the fourth track was preferred by each member of the group. Everyone agreed that this had not really been done before and that there was the possibility to vary a lot within one campaign, meaning that it can be used a lot and for a long time. There is also a lot of variety in terms of what can be done on social media.
The remaining question was how we would proceed. Jean-Luc Mines explained that, if they wanted to launch the campaign within the remainder of this year, it would have to be in mid-november. At this time it is usually relatively quiet and people will not be overwhelmed with messages. Furthermore, he added that this would leave Mikado enough time to prepare the launch and it would not collide with all of the communication messages that people are “bombarded” with the month before Christmas. Lastly, we asked them to let us know what their budget for the campaign is within the next days. This is important for the agency since it helps to avoid losing time preparing something that the client can not afford. Based on the budget, a media plan will be developed and implemented by mid-november.
After the meeting
When I discussed the meeting with Jean-Luc and Matthieu in the car back to the agency, the former let me know that such easy-going clients are the exception nowadays and that it is usually much more difficult to reach an agreement with the client. Often, people think they know more about his job than he does and do not trust the agency to do their job. In a nostalgic tone, he added that when he started working in this domain, which was in 1990, people put a lot more trust in the professionals and let them do their thing without doubting their every move.