When Barry Bruno began his work with the Transfusion Medicine division of Johnson & Johnson's Ortho Clinical Diagnostics, he noticed that all the ads he saw in the category focused on functional benefits. They touted things such as “my instrument is faster than yours,” said Bruno, former worldwide marketing director, Transfusion Medicine, who earlier this year was promoted to director-marketing, U.S. at Ortho Clinical.

Targeting the 20,000 transfusion labs worldwide, Bruno and his group last year relaunched the Transfusion Medicine line of business, showcasing its new instruments and services in a campaign called “Bloodlines.”

A series of print ads created by Doremus, New York, features striking photos of patients who benefit directly from blood transfusions, and the copy empathizes with the people who run the clinics.

“It's all about emotion and how we use this instrument to save lives,” Bruno said.

An ad promoting safer, more intuitive blood analyzers reads: “It takes a lot of heart for blood to travel this far safely,” next to a photo of a girl receiving a blood transfusion. Bruno said the inspiration came from quantitative and qualitative research, which found that blood bankers felt underappreciated, forced to do more with less and under immense pressure, as mistakes can be deadly.

In addition to print, the campaign has included trade shows, online ads, YouTube videos, Ortho Clinical's On Demand community website and the Pocket Blood Banker blood diagnostic application.

The campaign has generated widespread response and sparked sales, Bruno said. Last year, Ortho Clinical sold, shipped and installed 57% more instruments than in 2010. More than 12,000 potential customers have seen its ads at trade shows, and 4,500 have visited the website and commented. In addition, Ortho Clinical's call center has received more than 200 calls requesting copies of the ads.

“They're saying, "I've seen your work and want to decorate my lab with it,' ” Bruno said. “It's been great validation of the insight behind this.”