2018 winner, Scottish Government, not for profit - case study

When did you last think about your own death? Or what will happen to your body after you go?

Your heart? Those eyes you’re looking through right now?

Organ donation is a marvel of the modern world. But thinking about it can be deeply unsettling.

Who can imagine how we’d feel to be sat on a plastic chair in an intensive care unit, reeling from the death of someone we love, and faced with the choice of whether to let doctors remove parts of their body and give them to a stranger.

This paper tells the story of how the Scottish Government took a calculated risk with its 2016/17 organ donation marketing: deliberately avoiding tugged-heartstrings in favour of positivity, humour, naked bodies, and transplant scars on proud display.

It shows how this bold creative approach, coupled with smart integration and activation, helped bring about record-breaking outcomes in Scotland.

• The highest ever percentage of the Scottish population on the Organ Donor Register.
• The highest ever number of deceased donor transplants
• And the lowest number of people in Scotland on the transplant waiting list since records began.

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(Please note: parts of this case study may have been redacted for confidentiality purposes.)