SM Talha Nazim, Rohit Devgun, Bhakti Malik of Ogilvy and Ankur Rander of Bombay Design Centre have joined hands to launch Blood Buddies, an innovative blood bank app that will help provide fastest human-to-human service of finding blood donors in times of need.
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Nazim said, “According to reports, blood banks all over the country are dealing with severe shortage and the shelf life of blood is also 35 days. The Blood Buddies app lets you create your blood bank with your trusted contacts that would be most willing to help. After all, as the saying goes, a friend in need is a friend indeed.”
One has to download the app from the Android Play Store or iOS App Store, enter the blood type he/she is looking for, along with the location. The app will search available donors in that location and send a request to them instantly. For some reason, if the matching donors can’t offer help at that time, they can forward it to other people through the app on their phone. One can choose to keep the network closed (self-contacts only) or open to the entire blood buddies network.
Blood Buddies was first conceived as an idea in 2012 between Devgun, Malik and Nazim when they realised the potential of data and technology on phones and social platforms. Such data could be put to use in a better manner. The idea truly got wings when Nazim met Rander, CEO at Bombay Design Centre, in a meeting for a client in 2015. Rander and team took close to three months to build the app.
Nazim added, “It was our way of saying that ad people could also save lives. Ankur had just returned from Sweden and set up his digital agency, and I admired his vision and work. After that, he took over and owned the idea and brought it to life.”
Currently, the team at Bombay Design Centre, including Rander, Siddesh Pednekar, Parth Mistry, Girish Agarwal and others, will manage the app.
The admen don’t intend to monetise the app and take it as a service to society. Nazim said, “It’s not a full-time work for us, but a side project that gives us a chance to give back to society.”
The Blood Buddies team did not involve any angel investment in the making of the app but would welcome any social fund that helps them raise awareness around it while taking it to the next level.
Nazim said, “Our mission is to use design and technology to improve life and design a better India. We put in 10% of our profits to incubate such ideas and the team puts in their Saturdays to work on these projects. Our larger vision is to turn this into the fastest human-to-human help network by extending it to things like finding bone marrow donors. We want to extend this to more local languages and other countries.”
In a few months, the team intends to start promoting the app through social media influencers and direct message marketing as well. Blood Buddies is also looking for organisations, NGOs and corporates for further collaboration.
The app launch sets an example for more admen to join the force of adding value to the society by not just creating ads, but also inventing and innovating technologies like Blood Buddies.
“The people with ideas have always looked at ingenious ways of giving back to society, be it through brands or independently. Advertising, design, technology or people of other any profession can save lives if done with love and honesty,” Nazim said.
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