Budweiser #OneTeam: Anheuser-Busch and The American Red Cross
As COVID-19 swept the nation and more Americans stayed at home, thousands of local blood drives were cancelled, leaving communities and frontline workers with a severe lack of critical supplies – including units of donated blood.
When the pandemic began, Anheuser-Busch knew its unique and longstanding relationships with the American Red Cross and sports partners could be leveraged to meet a critical need that no one was talking about: blood supply.
When COVID-19 hit the U.S., communities and frontline workers across the country faced a severe lack of critical supplies – including this supply of donated blood. Community blood drives contribute nearly 70% of the blood collected by the American Red Cross. With people stuck at home, more than 7,700 blood drives were canceled, resulting in 220,000 fewer blood donations. Without bridging the gap, healthcare workers and communities across the country would be left without a vital resource, putting lives at risk.
To help immediately address the unprecedented need for blood donations and support other urgent relief efforts, A-B donated $5 million to the American Red Cross by redirecting existing sports and entertainment investments to respond to the crisis.
A-B transformed vacant stadiums, arenas, and brewery tour centers into fully functional blood donation centers and within days, developed a framework to identify new blood drive locations and implement new regulations to keep donors and staff safe. In the face of a nationwide shortage of hand sanitizer, they also leveraged production and distribution capabilities to produce hand sanitizer, donating more than 168,000 8oz bottles to the Red Cross to ensure each blood drive had the resources they needed to operate safely.
By elevating a vast network of influential voices and partners, the partners successfully hosted socially distanced blood drives in cities throughout the country to accommodate for the demand.
In addition to providing necessary venues and resources, A-B also played a decisive role in building awareness around this critical demand, donating TV airtime to the American Red Cross for public service announcements and developing a unique piece of content, titled One Team, to serve as a tribute honoring the everyday people of America who were rising above the call of duty to help in the wake of the health crisis.
In the end, A-B worked with more than 30 sports partners and 40 stadiums and company locations to bring this program to life and to spread the word through social and earned media efforts. Members of local media and consumers felt energized to answer the call and make a difference in their community.
The strategy to champion critical local blood drives resulted in more than 120 total earned media placements, 136 million earned media impressions, 155 thousand social conversations and 85.9 million potential social media impressions. Vice President Mike Pence even took to Twitter to promote the initiative.
In 2020, the collaboration between Anheuser-Busch, the American Red Cross and sports partners resulted in 97 blood drives (and counting in 2021!) across the country, collecting more than 5,900 units of blood.
The relationships of each individual partner maximized the program’s impact by leveraging multiple voices to spread awareness about this important issue. Nowhere is this more clear than in the number of first-time donors: 2,250 and growing. In fact, 50% of donations came from first-time blood donors – almost double the rate of first-time donors at a typical drive – illustrating the campaign’s ability to mobilize a new generation of blood donors to meet this growing need.
But the true measure of success lies in the thousands of people whose lives have been saved or improved because of these blood donations. To date, the blood donations have potentially saved more than 17,700 lives, helping patients receive critical care at a time of uncertainty.
