The world was in the first Covid-19 wave with lockdowns, highly restrictive social distancing measures and not knowing how the following day would be. People were really afraid of getting out of their houses and, because of that, blood donation plunged.

At the same time, companies had their assembly lines and personal idle. They were trying to help the population as they could and Chevrolet – that already was using its ingenuity to help by fixing ventilators and producing masks – had bandwidth and energy to go further.

The company was still eager to use its mobility experience to help by offering an experience where people could use their cars to re-energize the blood donation during social distancing times.

After realizing that during social distancing times people were using their cars as a home extension, a so called ‘safety bubble’ where people could go out without putting themselves at risk, Chevrolet and Albert Einstein Hospital have created a Blood Drive-Thru. Even during difficult times people could use their cars to make a safe blood donation following all WHO guidelines and help saving lives. Around this core idea, we also had geolocated and segmented ads to bring the people in and also a strong PR push to use donors experience in the Drive-Thru to amplify the message to the ‘engaged-but-worried-about-the-pandemic’ audience.

After realizing that during social distancing times cars could be positioned as a home extension, a ‘safety bubble’ where people could go out without putting themselves in risk, Chevrolet partnered up with the most important Brazilian health institution, Albert Einstein Hospital, to create a Blood Drive-Thru.

With the message that Chevrolet was helping to recover blood stocks utilizing its expertise in mobility to create a Blood Drive-thru, people realized that even during difficult times they could help saving lives by using their cars to make a safe blood donation following all WHO guidelines.

Chevrolet and its partners utilized their institutional channels to share the initiative and draw attention not only of donors but specially of influencers and all the major national media outlets. Geolocated and segmented ads also brought people in and a PR push used donors experience in the Drive-Thru to amplify the message to the ‘engaged-but-worried-about-the-pandemic’ audience.

We've partnered up with the most important health institution in Brazil, Albert Einstein Hospital, to create a blood donation drive-thru that offered all the safety people needed to keep helping other people even during pandemic.

Using their own cars to keep the social distancing, people could get off only at the exact moment of donating blood to enter a ‘tuned’ truck with its interior designed by the hospital.

In only two weeks, before the pandemic hit its first wave spike, the Drive-Thru was implemented starting on July 18th. The project was live for 1 month in the parking lot of Eldorado Shopping Center, one of the most important and well-located shopping malls of São Paulo, that was closed, again due to the pandemic safety measures.

After one month, donations in the drive-thru surpassed traditional blood banks by 20% reaching pre-pandemic levels of donation.

A new class of donors also emerged because of the risk-free nature the experience offered within a context of fear. We engaged people that had never thought about donating blood but felt they should help during pandemic. This new class of donors brought mainly through segmented and geolocated media, the ‘first-timers’, was responsible for almost 90% of donations.

In terms of image, Chevrolet became one of the brands with biggest non-aided awareness in Brazil during the pandemic. After the Blood Drive-Thru, Chevrolet featured a 90 second story in Rede Globo’s Jornal Nacional, the biggest audience news show in the country, reaching over 85% of Brazilians. The activation was covered in news outlets such as CNN, AdAge, Globo, Band, Folha de São Paulo and Estadão newspapers among others.