Gift of Life: Making bone marrow donor registration accessible to all
The Situation
Gift of Life's mission is to find a bone marrow match for every blood cancer patient. Matches are made based on shared genetics, which means patients almost always need a donor from their own ethnic background. Currently, the odds of finding a match vary drastically. While White patients have a 79% chance of finding a donor, Black patients have only a 29% chance, Hispanic patients 48%, and AAPI patients 47%. To save lives, the registry must become more diverse.
The Task
Our goal was to close the gap by recruiting more young, ethnically diverse donors to Gift of Life's donor registry.
The Challenge
Younger people make the best donors, but they hate the signup process. Even though Gift of Life had switched from blood tests to cheek swabs years ago, the process still feels medical and scary to some. Cheek swabs remain a reminder of hospitals and the pandemic, which keeps them from signing up.
The Solution
If we wanted to change the registry, we needed to evolve the way we brought them in. So we moved away from medical tools and turned toward something more familiar: chewing gum.
According to genomic research, chewed gum is surprisingly effective at preserving DNA cells.
We partnered with Labcorp to validate that gum could produce a viable HLA tissue-typing sample. We found that by chewing a piece of Doublemint gum for five minutes, people could provide enough DNA to join the registry.
The Execution
We launched our "Hero Gum" by focusing on three strategies:
Breaking the medical mistrust. We replaced the needles and swabs in our donor signup kits with our "Hero Gum." And we redesigned the packaging to feel friendly and playful, more like a consumer product than a medical test.
Cultural integration. We knew our audience was passionate about sports in general, and baseball in particular. So we met them at Citi Field during a New York Mets game – a low-stakes environment where chewing gum is already a natural part of the fan experience.
Maximum ease. Using the stadium Jumbotron, we invited fans to a booth during inning breaks. This removed the friction of scheduling an appointment or visiting a clinic. All they had to do was show up and chew.
The Results
The event at Citi Field became the biggest one-day marrow drive in U.S. history, specifically targeting the 42,000 fans in attendance.
62% of the new registrants from our drive identified as being from our target ethnic backgrounds (Black, Hispanic, or AAPI), directly improving the odds for patients in those communities.
We saw a +188% increase in social media engagement, with a total reach of 269 million people, proving that a non-clinical approach resonates with the Gen Z and Millennial demographic.
Our "gum method" of donor recruitment was so impactful that Swiss Blood Stem Cells (a competitor registry) and CVS requested the technology, and the World Marrow Donor Association invited us to present the initiative in Madrid as the new global standard for donor recruitment.
By replacing the swab with gum, we created a more accessible recruitment experience, ensuring every patient – regardless of their race – has a shot at a life-saving match.
