The Tooth Fairy’s Address is ludic, fun initiative that promoted a real cultural change. Through this integrated experience, people understood the importance of baby teeth and the way parents can teach a valuable lesson to children through them. So much that it has already changed a cultural perception in Brazil regarding baby teeth. The campaign’s main goal was to get as many baby teeth donations as possible. In only two months, FOUSP received 250% more baby teeth donations than the previous 3 years.

Baby teeth are organs used in hundreds of researches to cure diseases. However, in Brazil, in order to donate, you need to sign a consent form. People are allowed to ship the teeth for studies as long as the signed consent form is attached.

Latin America’s biggest university desperately needed baby teeth donations to maintain hundreds of studies that help save lives. So, we twisted a well-known cultural myth, the Tooth Fairy, revealing where she lived. In two months, FOUSP received 250% more baby teeth than they had in the previous 3 years!

We found out FOUSP, Latin America’s biggest university and a world reference in scientific studies, uses baby teeth in hundreds of researches that ultimately improved public health and literally save lives. However, we also learned that, despite the fact they are constantly on the news asking for donations, they had only received 178 baby teeth in the last 3 years. People hadn’t understood the real importance of baby teeth yet. So, every single day, thousands of baby teeth that can be used by science are discarded, lost or forgotten. Besides that, children think they should wait for the Tooth Fairy to exchange their baby teeth for a coin. We realized FOUSP desperately needed an everlasting campaign, something that would make people understand, once and for all, that baby teeth are organs that can and should be donated.

We came up with a twist for The Tooth Fairy myth. For the first time, the Tooth Fairy herself told everyone a well-kept secret revealing where she lived: the Tooth Fairy’s Address. Now, parents and kids know that the Tooth Fairy lives at FOUSP, where scientific studies are carried out with baby teeth. So, instead of exchanging their kids´ baby teeth for money, parents now can encourage them to do something better: helping thousands of people. And we made the donation process really easy: with a click of a button on the Tooth Fairy’s Address´ website, we would send them a sealed letter/consent form, so that people could ship their baby teeth to The Tooth Fairy at FOUSP, free of charge.

Making teeth donation easy wasn’t enough. We had to tell everyone. So we targeted thousands of parents, on pertinent touch points, and revealed the secret. We created an animated short film to be shared on WhatsApp and social platforms. We also wrote a children’s book that was distributed at dentistry offices and schools. It can also be downloaded on the Tooth Fairy’s Address website. We spread 50 OOH all over São Paulo. We presented the project to the Brazilian Dentistry Association and distributed 200 Tooth Fairy dolls so the Fairy herself could ask for donations. Parenting influencers posted their children’s teeth donations, thus helping spread the word. It was an integrated effort to convince children and parents that they have an opportunity to do good by changing a cultural habit.

We implemented the campaign with the help of scientists, dentists and teachers, therefore spreading the message through every pertinent touch point. We launched the website with all the campaign’s materials in February. There, you can also order your sealed envelope / consent form with the click of a button. At the same time, OOH was placed near schools and parks. A week before that, we’d sent 200 Tooth Fairy dolls to dentists around São Paulo so the Fairy herself could ask for donations. In February we launched a sharable animated short film and, on the following weekend, when the project was already spreading organically through social media. Influencers with 7 to 9-year-old kids shared it, boosting the audience’s engagement. In the end of May, we had significantly increased the number of donations.

• Our animated short-film had +2 million views and +300k shares;

• The Tooth Fairy’s Address’s story organically made into Brazil’s 3 most watched TV news shows;

• 85% conversion rate of potential donors on the website;

• FOUSP is now receiving 3,500 baby teeth every month;

• That’s 8 times the number of donations they receive in the last 6 years!

• The Tooth Fairy’s address made FOUSP’s Biobank the largest collection of teeth for studies in the world;

• And it is FOUSP’s most successful campaign ever!