Suntory Beverage & Food (Thailand) Co., Ltd.

Brand's Young Blood

Project Commitment to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

INTRODUCTION

“BRAND’s Young Blood” is a project that has been established since 1997 by Suntory Beverage and Food (SBFT), in cooperation with the National Blood Service Center under the Thai Red Cross Society to help alleviate the problem of insufficient blood reserves, especially in emergency situations such as a pandemic or during the annual festive period wherein a lot of road accidents occur.

This project aims to promote and invite students as well as the general public to routinely donate blood to increase the blood supply for saving human lives by inspiring them to change their behaviors and values. In addition, SBFT helps by sharing knowledge of how to prepare oneself before a blood donation session to get quality blood from a healthy donor through various activities and contests. This knowledge includes helping potential donors understand the safety process and guidelines of blood donation and the benefits that donors will get after donating, in both body and mind.

FRAMEWORK AND STRATEGY

The framework of this project consists of 2 parts, first is to support the Thai Red Cross on the Universities Roadshow by promoting blood donation activities and the aforementioned knowledge-sharing sessions. These are arranged by SBFT’s CSR team who routinely accompany Thai Red Cross Donation Mobile units to visit universities in each Thailand region. Throughout the year, in every activity, SBFT will donate its BRAND’s Essence of Chicken, the company’s famous health enrichment product, to the Thai Red Cross for both the donation center and the mobile units to give to the donors to help them feel refreshed and energized in a short period after giving blood.

The second part of this project is to invite new donors and inspire them to donate blood more routinely in broader areas, not only on university campuses. SBFT creates a contest each year to welcome students or the young generation demographic (age 17-22 years old) to join for rewards. The contest must cover education on how to prepare oneself for blood donation, to inspire these youths to donate blood, and to create an understanding of the safety of blood donation.

ACHIEVEMENT AND IMPACT

While 1 unit of blood donated (450 CC) can save 3 people’s lives, it can also be used to produce many more blood products (red blood cells, blood platelets, and plasma) to treat more patients with various diseases. Since its inception, the project was able to receive donations of more than 1,687,608 units of spare blood or approximately 759,423,600 million CCs. This blood is distributed to all hospitals in need all over the country.

During the contests, knowledge is distributed to the younger generation who joins the activities and then receive the contest results in the form of infographics, posters, VDO clips, and computer games. All of these are widely used in communication by the Thai Red Cross, partnered universities, and SBFT in both physical activities and social networks to educate more people in broader areas.

FUTURE DIRECTION

To cultivate “the giving value” in youths is a long-term mission. SBFT believes that these values and beliefs can be passed on from one generation to the next, developing a culture of empathy and open-heartedness. The company will continue to support this activity and drive to turn people into catalysts for change in the visited universities, becoming the seeds of goodwill that will spread throughout society.

To add value to this project, SBFT will expand the scale of its communication efforts. The company plans to invest more in the contest results (i.e. VDO clips, games), making it attractive enough to broaden its reach nationwide. Recently, the company has developed a short movie to inspire people to express their giving nature by donating blood to save people’s lives using the one of previous VDO winners in this project to be re-produced by an expert. This movie will also be a tool for any bureau that would like to help the Thai Red Cross tackle any blood shortage issues in the future.

Suntory Beverage & Food Thailand Co., Ltd. (SBFT) was established in 1974 under the name of Cerebos (Thailand) In 1990, the company became part of the Suntory Group. Its products include BRAND’s Essence of Chicken, BRAND’s Bird’s Nest, include BRAND’s Plant Essence. The company has delivered quality products to consumers around the world by manufacturing over 350 million bottles a year for export to more than 20 countries.

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