Hemoba / Esporte Clube Vitoria MY BLOOD IS RED AND BLACK
Hemoba and Esporte Clube Vitória faced a severe blood shortage in Bahia. They needed to significantly increase donations by mobilizing E.C. Vitória's fan base. The objective was to create an impactful campaign that leveraged fan passion to drive blood donations.
Creative Idea
The team's jersey lost its red stripes; fans donated blood to bring them back.
To combat blood shortages, the E.C. Vitória football team removed the red stripes from their iconic jersey. Fans were challenged to donate blood, with each donation restoring a stripe, brilliantly leveraging their passion to visually represent and drive life-saving contributions.
Draining the Sacred Red from the Pitch
A $15,000 Masterclass in Earned Media
The production of "My Blood is Red and Black" is a benchmark for high - impact, low - budget execution. With a total investment of only $15,000, Leo Burnett Tailor Made managed to generate over $8 million in spontaneous media value. The strategy relied on the psychological ownership fans feel toward their team's colors. By stripping the "sacred" red from the jersey, the agency turned a passive audience into active participants. Marcelo Reis (CCO) noted the audacity of the move, as changing a football kit is usually considered "sacrilegious" in Brazilian culture.
Restoring the Stripes Milestone by Milestone
The campaign was executed as a live, evolving narrative over six weeks. The team debuted in a black - and - white kit on June 30, 2012, with a banner stating: "Vitória has always given its blood for you. It's time for you to give yours." The red stripes were not returned all at once; they were added back in four distinct stages as blood donation milestones were met at Hemoba centers. This "stripe - by - stripe" restoration created a visual progress bar that dominated national sports news for 935 minutes of TV coverage.
Global Reach and Cultural Resonance
The impact extended far beyond the stadium, reaching 130 million people and garnering over 1 billion page views. While the primary surge came from the Vitória "Leão" faithful, the campaign even moved rival fans in Salvador. The temporary white - and - black jerseys became instant collector's items, symbolizing a historic community effort. The project eventually ranked as the #1 most awarded campaign in the world in the "All Guns Blazing" category by the Gunn Report, proving that a powerful metaphor can outperform a massive media buy.
Creative Strategy Deconstructed
Company
E.C. Vitória possessed an iconic red and black jersey and a deeply passionate, loyal fan base ready for collective action.
Category
Blood donation campaigns typically relied on direct, often generic, appeals, lacking a strong, interactive, and emotionally resonant incentive.
Customer
Football fans deeply desired to see their team's identity complete and felt a strong sense of belonging and collective responsibility.
Culture
Brazilian football culture, characterized by intense fan loyalty and a strong sense of community around their beloved teams, provided fertile ground.
Company
E.C. Vitória possessed an iconic red and black jersey and a deeply passionate, loyal fan base ready for collective action.
Category
Blood donation campaigns typically relied on direct, often generic, appeals, lacking a strong, interactive, and emotionally resonant incentive.
Strategy:
Leverage existing collective passion to drive social action and visually represent community impact.
Customer
Football fans deeply desired to see their team's identity complete and felt a strong sense of belonging and collective responsibility.
Culture
Brazilian football culture, characterized by intense fan loyalty and a strong sense of community around their beloved teams, provided fertile ground.
Strategy:
Leverage existing collective passion to drive social action and visually represent community impact.
Results
The campaign resulted in donations raised by 46%, significantly exceeding Hemoba's (the blood bank) goal of 25%. The investment for the campaign was US$ 15,000. It achieved a return in spontaneous media (earned media) of US$ 8,000,000. The campaign reached 130 million people and generated more than 1.3 billion pageviews on the web. It also received over 935 minutes of TV exposure, including open TV, cable, and Pay-Per-View.
46%
increase in blood donations
US$ 8,000,000
return in spontaneous media
130 million
people reached
Strategy Technique
Turn the Brand Into a Movement
The campaign transformed E.C. Vitória into a catalyst for a vital social cause. By linking blood donation to restoring the team's identity, it mobilized fans into a collective movement for good.
Explore Technique
Creative Technique
Gamification
The campaign turned blood donation into a collective game where fans' actions directly impacted their team's visual identity. This created a clear, progressive goal and immediate feedback, motivating participation.
Explore Technique
Craft Breakdown
This campaign's craft excels in leveraging a potent cultural symbol—a football team's jersey—to drive a vital social cause, demonstrating an exceptional understanding of fan psychology and brilliant visual storytelling to connect donation directly to identity. The integrated approach across multiple media platforms amplifies its impact.
The core idea of progressively restoring red stripes to the team's jersey based on blood donations is a visually brilliant and instantly understandable concept that directly ties fan action to team identity.
The campaign demonstrates a powerful ability to tap into the deep emotional connection fans have with their football team, transforming a civic duty into an act of passionate allegiance, making blood donation a collective goal.
The strategic rollout across games, integrating press conferences, celebrity endorsements, in-stadium messaging, and broader media coverage, ensured maximum visibility and engagement throughout the campaign's duration.
The campaign generated massive national and international media attention, leading to an impressive US$8 million in spontaneous media return, far exceeding the initial investment, showcasing exceptional PR execution.
The campaign's success stems from the synergistic combination of its ingenious visual concept (Art Direction) which immediately resonated with football fans, its strategic deployment (Campaign Strategy) across critical touchpoints, and the resulting widespread organic media pick-up (Public Relations), all fueled by a deep understanding of fan devotion.
