Can Creativity Make you Bleed? This is the question being asked by a blood donation campaign that recently won the Rigg Design Prize— Australia's highest national accolade for contemporary design, curated by the National Gallery of Victoria. The communication design led by Leo Burnett Australia meditates on a simple idea: which emotion could be strong enough to encourage people to come out and take action? "We are using different emotional drivers like fear, sadness, joy, disgust," shares Andy Fergusson, National Executive Creative Director, Leo Burnett Australia, on the concept that won a cash prize of $30,000. "Each campaign element,” Fergusson continues, “uses a driver to hopefully inspire and motivate people, and then we are asking people to vote which one works best for them.”

Leo Burnett’s entry bagged the esteemed triennial prize, after being selected from a range of concepts presented by seven other participating studios. The Rigg Design Prize 2022 sought "campaigns that articulated the potential of creativity to accelerate positive social, cultural, economic, or environmental change". Eight Australia-based creative agencies— TBWA\Melbourne, The Royals, DDB Group Melbourne, Frost*collective, Thinkerbell, Clemenger BBDO Melbourne, Gilimbaa, and Leo Burnett Australia – were invited by the NGV to compete for the prize.

Each studio was asked to prepare a suite of campaign assets that put forward an intriguing idea related to the power of creativity. Using their expertise in graphic design, typography, digital media, film, psychology, and creative writing, the studios came up with an array of distinguished concepts, serving a call to action for the Australian community. Nurturing unique messages—billboards, street posters, and moving images celebrated how creativity can shape who we are and the world we live in. DDB Group Melbourne’s concept of The Creative Index presented data that tracked creativity for the first time on the Australian share market. The Royals designed a speculative online shop called Without Store selling hypothetical versions of some of society’s most well-known inventions, all born of Australian creativity. Thinkerbell’s Invaluable Scratchie campaign reimagined the popular scratch card by replacing the dollar value of the prize with ‘creativity’—a prize, which the Sydney and Melbourne based studio says, is impossible to put a price on. Following suit, other campaigns include the usage of a common open-ended question to invite possible solutions to current issues (Any Ideas?, Frost*Collective), a reconnection to creativity to better understand the Australian nation’s past (Unlearn the Truths, Gilimbaa), and a series of graphic ephemera communicating that creativity, when applied to financial matters, can change trajectories (Everything Grows with Creativity, TBWA\Melbourne).

The presented campaigns have now been put together in the form of an exhibition which is on view at the Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia in Melbourne.

Leo Burnett’s winning campaign highlights the Australian community’s need for blood donation. Speaking about the concept, Fergusson explains, “We went back to a quote by Leo Burnett. He said creativity has the power to transform human behaviour. This is an opportunity for us to talk about not only creative potential but also prove that creativity has the potential to motivate people and create tangible results. Our creative concept is 'Can Creativity Make you Bleed?' and what we are doing is, we are putting creative potential to the test by finding out what emotion is going to motivate people to give blood."

He continues, “Giving blood is one of those core human needs that has been there since the beginning of time. It is also something that’s really difficult for people to do. They can’t get their heads around (it), a lot of people are afraid of it. Only three per cent Australians actually give blood.”

The campaign, which is activated by a QR code, records and displays the results on a live graph, presenting visualisations that elicit emotions. The judging panel for the design award include Beatrice Galilee, Co-Founder and Executive Director of The World Around; Ewan McEoin, Senior Curator of Contemporary Art, Design and Architecture, NGV; and Morry Schwartz, founder of Schwartz Media, all of whom appreciated the design’s clear strategic approach, its compelling idea, and capacity for impact. They also lauded the American advertising company's use of language, image, and installation to the best of their ability, in addition to displaying exceptional craft in revealing how powerful creative forces of advertising can be.

Promoting the legacy of the late Colin Rigg (1895-1982), a former secretary of the NGV's Felton Bequests’ Committee, the Rigg Design Prize was established in 1994 to recognise contemporary design practices in Victoria. Now running in its ninth edition, the triennial prize’s eight campaigns remain on display until January 29, 2023.