How NHS Blood and Transplant is driving donor behaviour change

Blood is a critical part of any major trauma response, yet the system that supplies it relies on a surprisingly small number of people. That challenge was explored during an NHS Blood and Transplant session on the People and Skills stage at The Emergency Services Show.

While the team encouraged visitors on the show floor to find out their blood type and sign up as donors, the on-stage discussion went deeper. Kate Thomas and Ian Williams examined why goodwill and intention are not enough and why turning support into sustained action remains one of NHSBT’s biggest challenges.

The session opened with a new NHSBT advert rooted firmly in the emergency services world. Set around a trauma response, it showed blood being administered in a life-or-death moment – the point at which years of donor recruitment either pay off, or don’t. The message was clear: donors are “there when it’s needed most”, even if they never meet the person whose life they help to save.

Kate then set out the scale of NHSBT’s work. Each year, the organisation supplies around two million blood products to hospitals in England, running roughly 50,000 donation appointments every week through a network of 28 donor centres and 250 mobile units. Alongside blood, NHSBT also coordinates organ, tissue and stem cell donation across the UK. None of it, she stressed, happens without donors coming forward.

That role is continuing to expand. After years of restrictions linked to vCJD, UK-sourced plasma is once again being collected and used to manufacture life-saving medicines, with more than 2,000 patients already benefitting. NHSBT is also working with the Ministry of Defence and air ambulance services on products such as freeze-dried plasma, designed for use at the front line of trauma care. Elsewhere, genomics-led blood matching is helping improve outcomes for patients with conditions including sickle cell disease and thalassaemia.

Communications play a critical role in sustaining this system. Kate highlighted the immediate impact that broadcast media can have, pointing to BBC Breakfast features that trigger real-time donor registrations. A recent national appeal resulted in 29,000 new donors signing up and a further 50,000 appointments being booked. Partnerships are also central to NHSBT’s approach, including work with Black heritage advocates and brands, and the placement of blood-typing kits in Boots stores to help identify donors with high-demand blood types.

Ian then turned to the behavioural challenge underpinning all of this. While around a third of people say they intend to donate blood, fewer than five per cent actually do, and the active donor base is closer to two per cent. Closing that gap between intention and action, he explained, is where much of NHSBT’s communications effort is focused.

Using the Government Communication Service’s OASIS framework, Ian described how NHSBT aligns its messaging with clinical need and donation capacity, avoiding spikes in demand it cannot meet. Much of its mass communication is aimed at non-donors living in priority areas, often younger, urban and more ethnically diverse populations, while more targeted activity speaks directly to donors with rare or high-demand blood types such as O negative or Ro, commonly used to treat patients with sickle cell disease. Media spend is weighted towards areas where capacity exists and growth is possible, with London accounting for around half of investment.

Crucially, Ian argued, behaviour change cannot be driven by “book now” messaging alone. NHSBT operates a roughly 60:40 split between brand-building and direct response, focusing on emotional connection as well as practical action. “You can build longer, deeper emotional connections through brand-building,” he said, which in turn makes people more likely to act when asked.

This approach underpins NHSBT’s current creative platform, Giving Types, which positions donors as people who want to give back and shows how easy it is to make a meaningful difference. Alongside serious, emergency-led storytelling, the organisation has also tested lighter formats to reach younger audiences, including a Channel 4 partnership that framed blood donation as part of a blind-date experience at a donor centre.

While NHSBT operates at national scale, both speakers stressed that the same principles apply to smaller teams with limited budgets. Clear objectives, a strong understanding of audiences, compelling storytelling and proactive media relationships can all be delivered through owned, earned and shared channels.

The session closed with a simple call to action: get your blood type checked and consider donating. It is a small personal step, but one that underpins many of the emergency responses discussed throughout the show – even if the donor never sees the outcome of their decision.

You can sign up to donate blood here.  

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