Branded entertainment is something very new and quite unusual in Brazil. The biggest restriction may be the client himself, not comfortable with investing in something other than the traditional TV spot. Our client, the Brazilian Association of Organs Transplants, is a non-profitable organization. There was no budget to do the traditional way in the first place. And secondly and more important, the traditional way wouldn’t work considering such a complex task like changing people’s attitude towards organs donation. To accomplish that, we needed to strike a nerve. And prove a point. That would only be possible by making people live a real experience and draw conclusions based on their real emotions triggered by this experience. It wouldn’t be the same if people knew right away that they were being exposed to an advertising piece.

Between September 15-20, 2013, 6 Facebook posts shocked all of Brazil and the media. Chiquinho Scarpa posted on his page that he would bury his U$ 500.000 Bentley in the yard of his mansion, inspired by the pharaos. Other posts followed showing the preparations for the burial. People were revolted. The media took the bait and strongly criticized Scarpa’s decision on every TV channel, radio station, newspaper, magazine and internet portal in the country, making a 22 Million Dollar integrated campaign for ABTO for free. In the burial event, with the media broadcasting live, the organs donation campaign was revealed.

Organs donations increased by 31.5% in just 1 month. More than 172 Million people impacted on social networks alone, through only 6 Facebook posts. It generated 22 Million Dollars of earned media with all of the spontaneous coverage on TV (live broadcast included), radio, newspapers, magazines and Internet portals, with ZERO investments in media. The production cost was only 6 thousands Dollars – that’s the total cost of the whole campaign. It ranked number 1 in Brazil on Trending Topics and number 2 in the world.