The Irish Blood Transfusion Service advertising account is out to tender, with 15 agencies chasing the €1.5 million (£1.18 million) business, including one from Scotland. Six agencies will be shortlisted and asked to present creative work in February.
The budget is marginally less than in previous years. In the past two years, €1.4 million was spent on advertising, while the current campaign budget is to cover two and a half years.
Over the next two years, more money will be spent on PR and community-focused initiatives which the service considers best geared to deal with any health concerns the public may have about donating.
Public service advertising is notoriously difficult to get right and, despite the current blood shortages, the blood service is satisfied that its current campaign, devised by Irish International, is working.
In 2001, the number of blood donors recovered to pre-1996 levels and research conducted by the blood service showed a high level of awareness of the advertising campaign.
The current blood shortage is partly seasonal, but is also due to the stricter donation criteria, which are turning away one in four would-be donors. The research also showed that the public likes to be reminded through advertising to donate. When asked what would encourage them to give blood, 24 per cent said TV advertising - the second highest response. The main motivator, at 29 per cent, was if friends or relatives needed blood.
Advertising for blood donors has been seen to work in other markets. In 2000, a national advertising campaign run by the Canadian Blood Services helped increase blood donations by 11 per cent.
The campaign, with the strapline "If you knew you could save a life - would you?" was the largest recruitment campaign the Canadian authorities had ever run, and was timed to coincide with the new restrictions on donations due to new variant CJD.
Seventy per cent of new donors and 54 per cent of lapsed donors, who had recently returned, said the advertising moved them to donate.
This year, the American Red Cross spent $4.5 million (€5 million) on a May-July advertising campaign to encourage donation. Only 5 per cent of Americans eligible to donate actually do.
The new campaign adopted an emotional approach featuring a young girl whose life was saved by a blood transfusion.
The television advertisement resembled a scene from ER, complete with ambulance sirens and relieved parents, while the copy line "Was it you who saved my life?" went straight for the heartstrings. The strapline "Someone needs you - right now" hammers the message home. Significantly, direct mail was a heavy component of the campaign, with two million Group O donors being sent mail shots reminding them to donate again.
The current Irish Blood Transfusion Service advertising is low key and pragmatic. It avoids the emotional advertising favoured, for example, by drink driving campaigns, and does not deal with the infection concerns that the public has in relation to blood donation.
Spread across television, radio and some outdoor sites, the creative approach differs according to the medium. On television, the graphically strong, sophisticated advertisements play on blood groupings, so Group O becomes SOS and AB becomes Able. Last year, the advertisements won an ICAD - one of the Irish advertising industry's most prestigious awards.
Different radio advertisements were used at different times, depending on the blood bank's immediate needs.
"The strategy is a direct appeal to the public," according to Mr Dave McLoughlin of Irish International. "The advantages of giving blood are fairly well known and understood here."
The campaign's stark "give blood" strapline is intended to remind and encourage potential donors. Surprisingly, given the service's database, direct mail is not part of the advertising strategy - although donors are contacted by telephone or by letter.
