A blood donor poses together with a cosplayer dressed as a Sister of Battle from Warhammer 40,000. Photo: Official account of the Shanghai Blood Center

For a few hours, the Shanghai Blood Center looked more like a fan convention than a medical facility.

Cosplayers in brightly colored power armor, carrying replica weapons, posed in front of displays featuring quotations and insignia from Warhammer 40,000, which is regarded as one of the world's best-known miniature wargames. Fans gathered around them for photos, creating the atmosphere of a franchise meet-up.

But the visitors had not come simply to meet fellow enthusiasts. Many had traveled from across China to roll up their sleeves and donate blood, drawn by the chance to take home a Warhammer-themed model.

The unlikely crossover reflects a broader effort by Chinese blood centers and public welfare organizations to reach young people in a language they recognize. By collaborating with popular international and domestic franchises, these organizations are making traditionally solemn causes more accessible - and, in this case, turning online enthusiasm into first-time blood donations.

Toys for life

From July 24 to August 2, the Shanghai Blood Center held a campaign allowing people who donated whole blood at designated sites to enter a prize draw for Warhammer 40,000-themed figures and models.

The prizes ranged from giant 1:18-scale Knight Titans - towering war machines in the franchise's fictional universe - and Primarchs, its superhuman military leaders, to standard Space Marine figures.

A Warhammer 40,000-themed model display at the Wonder Festival 2023 Beijing File photo: VCG

The crossover quickly became a topic of discussion online. According to the center, posts related to the campaign drew millions of views on Chinese social media platforms Weibo and Xiaohongshu (rednote) within three days, alongside a surge in user-generated posts and shares.

At three designated blood donation sites, the combined number of donors reached 256 in a single day, said the center.

The response was particularly notable because Shanghai had experienced consecutive days of high temperatures, which reduced pedestrian traffic and affected street-based blood collection.

With some models distributed faster than expected, the center held another round of the campaign on August 8 and 9.

The campaign appears to have reached the audience it was designed to attract. Zhu, 25, who donated blood in Shanghai on August 1, told the Global Times that his interest in Warhammer was the main reason he joined the campaign.

"I had never donated blood before taking part in this event," Zhu said.

Zhu lives outside Shanghai, as did many participants he met at the site. Some had traveled from the neighboring provinces, while others came from even farther away, largely because of the Warhammer models.

"Close to half of the donors on site that day were giving blood for the first time, and they were also Warhammer fans," Zhu said.

The campaign was neither an isolated experiment nor the center's first attempt to use pop culture to engage potential donors. According to the Xinhua News Agency, the Shanghai Blood Center began exploring IP collaborations in 2014 and has more than a decade of experience in such campaigns.

Pop culture for public good

China's voluntary blood donation rate has reached 11.4 donors per 1,000 people, Gao Guangming, deputy head of the Department of Medical Emergency Response under the National Health Commission, said at a press conference in June 2025.

"Over the past two years, voluntary blood donations have declined globally due to multiple factors. In China, the accelerating aging of the population, changes in lifestyles, and overlapping challenges in publicity, organization and mobilization have left the imbalance between blood supply and demand relatively pronounced," Gao said.

"Clinical demand continues to rise, while seasonal, regional and blood-type-specific shortages persist," Gao said.

As people aged 35 and under constitute the majority of blood donors, attracting more young people is crucial to sustaining voluntary blood donation.

"Using designer toys and popular products can make blood donation more approachable, increase its visibility and recognition among young people, and help remove psychological barriers," Zhang Yiwu, a professor at Peking University with an expertise in cultural studies, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

Young people are highly active on social media and more willing to share their experiences, meaning their participation can encourage others to follow, Zhang said. Attracting younger generations is therefore essential to the long-term development of public welfare causes, he noted.

Blood donation is not the only field in which Chinese organizations are using popular franchises to broaden public participation.

In March, One Foundation again collaborated with Twinkle Twinkle, a popular character owned by Chinese toy company Pop Mart, to raise awareness of the needs of people requiring special support. Volunteers and children with autism took part in an art activity at Pop Mart City Park in Beijing.

The Pokémon franchise also appeared in a ByteDance public welfare campaign in 2025, which called for greater attention to the treatment and rehabilitation of children with cleft lips and palates, according to Chinese media reports.

Yet the campaign's success also raises a longer-term question: whether enthusiasm generated by prizes can be converted into regular voluntary donations.

"If there are more Warhammer-related charity campaigns in the future, fans will continue to follow them with enthusiasm, and I would also consider participating again," Zhu said. "However, without rewards or other incentives, the actual participation rate may not be very high."

A Shanghai Blood Center staff member acknowledged the same challenge. "A themed event can quickly increase the number of blood donors, but the long-term security of a city's blood supply ultimately depends on a stable community of voluntary donors," said the staff member, according to Xinhua.

The lasting value of an IP collaboration, therefore, lies not simply in the immediate increase in donor numbers, but in whether it gives first-time donors a positive reason to return.

"The real significance of IP collaborations is to give young people an opportunity to walk into a blood donation site," Xinhua noted. "Through standardized services and a positive experience, they can develop an understanding of and identification with voluntary blood donation, ultimately moving from 'one-time campaign participants' to 'long-term contributors to public welfare.'"