Anyone can post on social media. But not everyone can create content that engages, inspires and creates value. And by a team with more than 10 years of experience working with organ procurement organizations (OPOs) who understands the Donate Life mission too.
Since 2014, Sam Hoyle and his team at New Tribe Media has managed the social media strategy for client Iowa Donor Network. We have effectively highlighted the transformative impact of donation and transplantation through storytelling. Reaching hundreds of millions of people across social platforms, we continue to successfully achieve the objective of fostering greater awareness and engagement in organ and tissue donation, and increase online organ donor registrations. Iowa Donor Network's Facebook page has become the largest social media presence out of all 55 OPOs. It's also one of the biggest donation and transplantation online communities in the world. We’re replicating those results for other OPOs too like Mid-America Transplant (55K+ followers) and Lifeline of Ohio (32K+ followers).
Built the largest OPO social media presence in the nation
“New Tribe Media has helped Iowa Donor Network become the largest and most engaged Facebook page in our industry with more than 220,000 followers. We are looked to as the gold standard upon which others in our field strive to model. New Tribe collects user generated content to help us tell stories of those whose lives have been impacted by our mission and create a community that shares our vision. We’ve also collaborated with New Tribe Media to produce compelling and award-winning videos to inspire all to donate life!”
— Heather Butterfield, Iowa Donor Network
We've leveraged the power of storytelling, online community building and social proof to create a mechanism where we produce inspirational original user generated content on a daily basis. No more stale graphics and stats, this is storytelling from the heart that cuts through the noise. We produce so many stories, we created online platform Organ Donation Media for OPOs to access the stories we produce similar to a news wire. Each story is categorized in a way that's easy to find the perfect story, fast. Users can search for the perfect story by date created, keyword, connection to donation, location, gender, sex, race, etc. It's another way we're helping OPOs bring their mission to life with powerful stories collected directly from those impacted.
Another way we've partnered with Iowa Donor Network is to create award-winning digital video campaigns that have raised awareness about organ, eye, and tissue donation. One such campaign was the “Second a Day” PSA, which ran during National Donate Life Month in April 2023. It leveraged a multi-platform paid digital strategy across TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and OTT. The campaign exceeded expectations, generating over 1.6 million views, securing 222 new donor registrations, and significantly increasing Iowa Donor Network’s presence among 18-24-year-olds. Recognized with Silver and Bronze Telly Awards and the Best of Category for Social Media honor at the AMA Iowa NOVA Awards, this campaign demonstrated the power of targeted storytelling and data-driven digital marketing in driving real-world impact.
Through creative storytelling, strategic ad placement, and high-quality production, New Tribe Media helped Iowa Donor Network become a leader in social media campaigning within the organ donation space, with their TikTok content alone amassing nearly 6 million views in 2023. These results reinforced the value of digital-first strategies to create greater awareness and engagement for the mission.
Fun fact: The founder of New Tribe Media, Sam Hoyle, worked at an OPO for nearly three years earlier in his career sparking an appreciation and thorough understanding of the mission.