Title | The Exchange |
Agency | VML |
Campaign | The Exchange |
Advertiser | Organ Donor Foundation |
Brand | Organ Donor Foundation |
Date of First Broadcast/Publication | 2014 |
Business Sector | Blood/Organ Donation |
Story | Only 1% of South Africans are organ donors. In a society driven by consumerism, fashion and popular culture have become more important than human life. But what if fashion could actually save lives? Rather than fighting consumerism, we used it to our advantage. We created The Exchange. The world’s first fashion boutique where you can’t buy anything with money but only with the currency of life – your organs. As an initiative for The Organ Donor Foundation of South Africa, we opened a pop up store in one of Cape Town’s most popular malls. Filled with clothes and accessories donated by some of SA’s most popular designers, shoppers could only pay by registering as an organ donor. This unique shopping experience was socialized through Twitter, Instagram and The Organ Donor Facebook page, making it a huge awareness and recruitment campaign. In the first month, the store sold out of all the items, potentially saving almost 6000 lives. |
Philosophy | Our goal was to drive donor registrations by raising awareness of the Organ Donor Foundation, demonstrating the impact that one person can make, and getting new donors to commit. To achieve this, we set out to use consumerism to our advantage and make donor registration part of popular culture. The ultimate goal was to save lives. Creative Execution: In keeping with the objective of bringing the conversation around organ donation into popular culture, we opened The Exchange in Cavendish Square, one of Cape Town’s most popular malls. The centre is home to Cape Town’s fashionistas, so it made sense for it to become the home of The Exchange as well. We built the pop up store in a high traffic area, ensuring as much exposure and foot-traffic as possible. Packaging, reminiscent of an ‘organs in transit’ bag, reinforced our messaging outside of the store. |
Result | Within 4 weeks, the store had sold out of all items, potentially saving almost 6000 future lives – demonstrating the power of consumerism, and how it can save lives Despite ZERO media budget, news of The Exchange spread fast, making it a huge awareness and recruitment campaign. Awareness of the Organ Donor Foundation increased dramatically and Facebook fan engagement grew by 628%. The Exchange was featured extensively across local and international media, driving even more people to the store. After spending less than $4000 on the entire project, we gained $1.5 million in earned media and generated 98 million earned media impressions. Most importantly, in the first month, the store sold out of all the items – potentially saving almost 6000 future lives. To harness the power of consumerism, we opened a pop up store in a popular Cape Town mall. We filled it with clothes and accessories donated by South Africa’s most fashionable designers, ensuring that The Exchange became popular, fast. With each donor potentially saving 7 lives, each item came with a powerful price tag. To raise awareness around the impact that one person can have, we created a powerful visual identity that was a refined mix of fashion and medicine. This was carried out through all elements from packaging, posters and decals, to furniture and change rooms. Shoppers could only pay by registering as a donor. We made the process easier with a simple sign-up app that we created. This was turned into a pledge that was shared to the donor’s network through Facebook Connect. This unique shopping experience was also socialized, making it a huge awareness and recruitment drive. |
Media Type | |
Wardrobe / Stylist | Justin Polkey |
Wardrobe / Stylist | Duvan Durand |
Wardrobe / Stylist | Arno Kruger |
Community Manager | Barend Potgieter |
Programmer | Jamy Golden |
Programmer | Jethro Flanagan |
Animator | Frank Van Der Elst |
Designer | Victoria Peter |
Designer | Marike Brown |
Designer | Ernst Lass |
Designer | Simon Moolman |
Project Manager | Doron Dusheiko |
Account Manager | Simone Redelinghuys |
Ux Designer | Ferline Tiard |
Strategist | Mari Basson |
Chief Marketing Officer | Ben Wagner |
Executive Creative Director | Adam Whitehouse |
Executive Creative Director | Ryan McManus |
Chief Creative Officer | Jason Xenopoulos |
Chief Creative Officer | Debbi Vandeven |