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.

To make donor registration part of popular culture, we opened the pop-up store in a high traffic area of Cavendish Square Shopping Mall - home to Cape Town’s fashionistas. We filled it with clothes and accessories donated by SA’s most fashionable designers, ensuring it became popular, fast.

Shoppers could only pay by registering as a donor. We made the process easier with a simple sign-up app that we created. Each registration was turned into a pledge and shared to the donor’s social network through Facebook Connect.

This unique shopping experience was socialized through Twitter, Instagram and the Organ Donor Facebook page.

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%.

After spending less than $4,000 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 6,000 future lives.