“Hemoji” has changed the way blood centers search for and recruit new donors in a digital social era. At the same time, it empowered people to show their support in a very simple way. Organically, we brought the cause to the place where everyone is – social networks – with big, amazing results.

Santa Casa de São Paulo is the largest philanthropic hospital in Latin America. However, it suffers from a chronic shortage of blood supply. Only few Brazilians are regular blood donors. Even the few ones who want to join Santa Casa’s donor database may give up because of the long process, which includes going to the hospital and filling out numerous forms.

The hospital runs mass campaigns to attract new donors, but many of them have blood types that are not in need in that moment. Besides that, because of their almost-zero budget, these initiatives tend to be infrequent, and blood has a short shelf life.

Santa Casa wanted to raise awareness of the cause and, most importantly, to design a solution for its blood bank’s low levels that would work perennially – without any costs.

“Hemoji” appropriates a very popular social behavior: the use of emojis on social platforms.

The Emoji alphabet has four images that represent the blood types: AB, A, B, and O.

We invited people to add one of these emojis, along with the plus or minus character, to their screen names on Twitter and Instagram, thus sharing their blood type and identifying themselves as blood donors.

By searching for an emoji and users’ region on the platforms, Santa Casa can find the right number of right donors every time a specific blood type is needed. Then, the hospital staff send these users direct messages asking them for donations and giving instructions in advance – therefore making donations more assertive.

Over 40 nationwide celebrities joined the cause voluntarily, adding the emojis to their own screen names.

The campaign was featured on websites, newscasts and newspapers organically.

With zero media investment, we had over 113,000,000 impacts on social media alone. We reached 30,000 potential new blood donors: 10 times Santa Casa’s monthly demand for donors.

Note: In Brazil, blood donation is voluntarily only. Announcing or offering any reward for the donations is strictly prohibited.