Countries around the world struggle to attract enough blood donors to meet demand.  There have been various innovative attempts over the years to improve that, with an Australian study linking blood donation to the identities we try and create on social media.

Possibly the most creative idea to increase donations comes from the very home of blood extraction.  The organizers of the Untold music festival in the Transylvania region of Romania offered a discount to punters who offered to donate blood.

Blood suckers

The home of Dracula is perhaps a natural place for blood donation, but the country suffers with the 2nd lowest number of donors in Europe, with just 1.7% on the blood register.

To help rectify that, the festival organizers launched their Pay with Blood scheme.

“Given that Romania faces an acute blood shortage in medical facilities, a campaign that takes inspiration from these myths in order to draw attention to a real problem is more than welcome,” the festival organizers said.

The festival, which took place this summer, offered a 30% discount to anyone that donated blood in the run up to the event, or alternatively a free one day pass if anyone donated at a mobile unit that will be set up for two days in Bucharest or at the blood transfusion center in Cluj-Napoca.

It transpired that around 50 people took them up on the offer by noon on the first day of the campaign, but whilst these numbers are relatively modest, there was also significant publicity surrounding the initiative.

Whether the publicity has proven more attractive to the festival organizers than for the blood donation centers is difficult to gage at this stage, but hopefully it’s a project that will repeat next year, and maybe even at other events in the region.