Every year, thousands of Red Cross volunteers walk the streets of Mexico with their collection boxes to support the organization's annual fundraising drive. The focus of the 2011 campaign was about natural disasters. We needed to show that every single coin helps the Red Cross reach dangerous places in order to save lives. We created a series of coin-op claw machines to dramatize the effect of donations. There were different stories where the timely intervention of the Red Cross helped the victims of different catastrophes. Inside these machines, hundreds of dolls awaited being saved by people and their coins. This way, children learned that helping could be fun by taking part in these rescue stories. Traditionally, claw machines make it hard to win, but this time, everyone wins… all the time.

We created coin-op claw machines to dramatize the effect of donations. There were different stories where the timely intervention of the Red Cross helped the victims of different catastrophes.Inside these machines, hundreds of dolls awaited being saved by people and their coins. This way, children learned that helping could be fun by taking part of these rescue stories.With these machines, we reinvented the traditional ”collection boxes” and the five different dolls, were a little prize that generated a big bond between the institution and the public.Traditionally, it's hard to win, but this time, everyone wins.

Response to the campaign was huge. Thousands of children tried their luck at the machines and thousands of dolls were rescued.Merely two days after the launch, the Mexican Red Cross had unprecedented media coverage worth 1.7 million dollars.Donations increased by 7.5% compared to 2010.The idea is now well set in society: coin by coin, we help the Red Cross save lives.