We Are Unlimited Turns Chicago's Red Line into the "Blood Line"

To help increase Chicago’s blood supply and raise awareness of the deficit, Vitalant (formerly LifeSource) – one of the largest non-profit blood service providers – is partnering with award-winning creative agency, We Are Unlimited, to give back to their city and help address a serious issue that affects us all. To do this, Vitalant is transforming the CTA Red Line, Chicago’s main artery, into the Blood Line.

The initiative began the week of January 14th, and will run for four weeks. The exterior of two CTA Red Line trains will be wrapped with Blood Line imagery, as well as the full interior. Chicagoans will have the opportunity to donate blood along the Blood Line on designated dates on Vitalant’s bloodmobile or at their donation centers. The first Blood Line blood drive took place steps away from the CTA Red Line station at:

Harrison on Friday 1/18 from 2pm-7pm

Additional locations to donate blood along the Blood to come in the coming weeks. 

Tell us about your role in the creation of this work.

We are Creative Directors, so a huge part of our day to day job is to help our teams get to great work. Over the summer, we raised our hands to help elevate our intern program. We wanted to see if we could help push this group of young minds to get to something great as well for a cause. We briefed the interns on the problem of Chicago’s blood shortage, and then we worked closely with them each day to get to better and better ideas. Eventually we landed on the idea of The Blood Line, and it felt like a very special idea. Once the interns left, we continued to work tirelessly with a large group at the agency, from the most junior creatives, all the way up to our CCO and CEO to craft this campaign and bring it to life.

Give us an overview of the campaign, what is it about?

Chicago has a critically low blood supply – nearly 50% lower than usual, which amounts to only a 1.5 day supply. If that supply runs low, Surgeries can be delayed. Cancer treatments postponed. Burn and accident victims might have longer wait times before being treated. At the same time, blood banks have had a difficult time appealing to new donors, especially millennials, and are actively searching for new breakthrough ways to connect with them.

The Red Line is Chicago’s main artery, ridden by hundreds of thousands of captive millennial commuters each and every work day. We saw a huge opportunity here, as our research indicated that the biggest problem was in fact, awareness. Many Chicagoans simply weren’t aware of the issue. However, many also said that once they were made aware, they would be willing to help.

So, we created the Blood Line to do two things - first, we wanted to increase awareness of the issue among millennial Chicagoans. We did this with specific, impactful creative which included full train wraps, interior train takeovers, informational billboards, and digital screens located at and around Red Line stations. Second, we wanted to drive real action to help solve the problem. Working alongside our client, Vitalant, we set up a series of mobile blood drives along The Blood Line where commuters could give blood and help their city.

Tell us about the details creative brief, what did it ask?

Chicago is our agency’s home, so as we thought about our creative brief, we filtered everything through the lens of being able to give back to our city in an impactful way. Through our own research, we uncovered that Chicago has a critical blood shortage. So we focused our brief on coming up with a breakthrough idea to help solve that problem.

Which insight led to the creation of this piece of work?

The most important insight that led to The Blood Line was the fact that Chicagoans were largely unaware of this critical blood shortage. However, once they were made aware they wanted to know how they could help. That inane, human desire to help in the time of need is the anchor of the entire Blood Line campaign. The power to solve this problem runs in the veins of each and every Chicagoan. They just need to know the problem exists.

What was the greatest challenge that you and your team faced during development.

The greatest challenge we faced was actually making The Blood Line a reality. We had this idea all of us believed in, but then we had to find a partner who believed in it equally, which we did with Vitalant. But there was a lot more to it. Because they’re a non-profit, Vitalant had a limited budget, so the team had to be creative in order to get media and PR on board to help make this as impactful as it can be.

What did you enjoy most about seeing this campaign through? Did you learn anything new from the experience?

There are a lot of things we enjoyed as we saw this campaign come to life. But the thing we’re most proud of is that it shows that We Are Unlimited is a great place for young talent to come in and express themselves creatively. Not many agencies are equipped to nurture a group of interns and help them get to an idea as impactful as The Blood Line, but with the way that our agency is set up, we can. The next crop of interns has a lot to live up to, but with the team here at We Are Unlimited, we’re confident that they’ll come up with a great idea as well. But no pressure!

Where do you see this campaign going in the future?

If successful, and if the problem we are trying to solve persists, it would be great to see Vitalant make this an annual event. This is an idea that can only gain momentum year over year.