What if anyone in need of blood could find it anywhere? Based on this question, Hospital Albert Einstein created an innovative way to make people aware of the need for blood donations. We’ve placed blood bags in refrigerators of several convenience stores throughout São Paulo. The costumers were amazed to found them beside sodas and sandwiches. Their reactions were filmed, and the resulting film was posted on the Internet and displayed on movie theatres under the tagline: “If getting blood was this easy, we wouldn’t have to ask you to donate".

To get the young interested in the blood donation cause, nothing more appropriate than going after them. This is why we decided on an unusual strategy, avoiding traditional media vehicles and using alternative tools. The first step was to find significant partners who would embrace the cause with enthusiasm. Since in Brazil it is quite common for the young to meet at gas station convenience stores for a bite, a drink and to meet with friends, we partnered with the major convenience store chain. Mockup blood bags were placed in refrigerators for beverages, transforming refrigerators into a media vehicle and bringing up the issue for discussion in a quite uncommon environment. The entire action was filmed and the video was massively featured in the largest movie theatre chain in Brazil - which became another important partner in the project. The video also went on social media and was further featured in blogs and websites - the whole in an entirely unprompted way.

The results of our action exceeded all expectations. In addition to the huge exposure as per our plans, the action was disseminated unprompted in other media vehicles, being even featured in important Brazilian TV newscasts. With a total investment of R$ 0.00, we obtained a total return of R$ 725,000Cinema Returns: 414,000. Internet Returns: 220,000. TV Returns: 91,000. But the best result was this one: right on the first month of the campaign, the number of young blood donors increased two-fold and the Hospital received blood donations in volume enough to attend approximately 4 thousand patients.