Rave To Save is an app by Desperados that turns your dance steps into donations for LGBTQIA+ organisations. The app was born out of a simple insight: discrimination on the dancefloor still persists, with 84% of party-goers saying they witnessed discrimination on the dancefloor and one-third actually experiencing it.

While LGBTQIA+ were initially part of the birth and pioneering of dance music, they were being discriminated against on the dancefloor. Our brief was to confront and solve the very problem on the dance floor.

As a brand that is synonymous with party culture, Desperados set out to create a tool that put a more progressive dance floor in the hands of people everywhere. With this in mind, we aimed to:

* Raise awareness around racial and sexual discrimination on the dance floor

* Generate app usage and interest

* Increase donations for LGBTQIA+-related organisations

* Increase our brand power YoY

Pour some love on the dance floor.

Our idea was simple: make the dance floor more inclusive by turning dance steps into donations supporting LGBTQIA+ organizations.

To do so, we leveraged Desperados Rave To Save, an app we created that counts your steps and turns those steps cold hard cash. For every 100 dance steps made, €1 was raised for LGBTQIA+ organizations. The more people danced, the more they helped make the dance floor a little bit more inclusive.

We launched the app in partnership with queer collective PXSSY PALACE, DJ Absolute and Peggy Gou in Ibiza. To boost support for the cause, Desperados matched all donations raised by partygoers.

To make the dance floor more inclusive, our strategic approach was to harness the power of dancers and the dance floor itself. Dancing breaks down barriers, and we wanted to amplify the dance floor at its best: inclusive and community-oriented.

In addition to having a simple idea, it was critical that the experience of using the app itself was as easy and as accessible as possible. To encourage people to use the app, we integrated gamification across the user experience. Progression (the more people dance, the more we donate) and achievements (celebrating donation milestones withs surprise moments, rewards, and rave reports) both helped to inspire and motivate people to keep dancing.

Understanding that there are always important nuances to consider when working with communities of any sort, we sought out the partnership of key allies and influencers to spread our message and partnered with LGBTQ+ organisation Stonewall for donations.

Once we had developed the app, we needed to get it out into the world and onto dance floors.

We used our sponsored festivals and owned parties to reach our audiences in their dancing moments. Creators helped tell our story and invite participation. We partnered with Vice to raise awareness of the app and program.

To give us additional scale, we developed partnerships with music leaders Beatport and Elrow, and we live-streamed virtual events to reach more audiences more effectively.

With in-app rewards for every step danced, live event step counters aimed to visualise the collective party mission, and exclusive line-ups making every event the hottest ticket in town, we gave Rave To Save a real place in party culture.

From Lagos to Ibiza, our 360º experience harnessed the power of dance with every touch-point inspiring partygoers to download and start dancing.

The results were nothing short of spectacular:

In total 21,000,000 total steps were taken throughout the campaign resulting in 116,000 Euro donated to Stonewall and other LGBTQ organisations. Additionally, the campaign garnered 530 million media impressions and 480 million in PR reach, demonstrating the power of the idea.

And lastly, overall brand power increased 5% YoY vs last year moving from 5.5 to 6.0. In addition, our brand meaningful index increased from 9.9 basis points from 109 to 119—demonstrating both an impact and resonance with our key audience.