African-Americans are critically underrepresented on NMDP's donor registry, creating dangerous gaps for Black patients with blood diseases who need a compatible match. NMDP needed to engage the Black community in a way that felt genuine rather than transactional, and do it within a concentrated timeframe.

NMDP needed to grow brand awareness and drive bone marrow donor registrations among younger audiences. The challenge was creating urgency around a cause most people have never personally encountered, at the most crowded media moment of the year.