First, we thought: If Brazilians could watch closely to Paralympic a athlete performance, they would certainly change their minds about it. So, as they are simply not interested in going to a stadium and watch the para-athletes, we decided to make the para-athletes go to them.

So we made a social video with 3 para-athletes unsuspecting gym-members in Rio de Janeiro. Recording everything with hidden cameras, we caught people’s reactions. At first, despise looks and disbelief. But when the para-athletes started working out, everything changed into astonishment faces.

Our content became viral instantly with more than 2 million global shares and 96% of positive sentiment. For the first time in Brazil, Paralympics was a hot topic on TV. Using 3 para-athletes to represent a cause, we draw Brazilians attention to the Paralympic Games and made them rethink everything they once thought about disabilities.

The lack of interest in the Paralympics from most part of Brazilians made them have a totally wrong image about the Games. Our challenge was to make them see the pure truth, which was the greatness behind Paralympics. So, we decided to use hidden cameras and make the most real video we could about the theme.

When the video was ready, we knew it wasn’t a TV spot. We needed something more transparent, just like social media. And it was perfect. Brazilians got truly amazed by our content and started sharing it with endorsing the message.

First 7 days:

• 15 Million Global views

• Trending Topics Brazil

• Globo, FOX Sports, Sportv

• BBC, Huffington Post, USA Today, MARCA, The Times of India

Later:

• Over 2 Million Organic Shares

• Over 100 Million Global Views

• Most watched ad on Youtube Brazil in September 2015

• $37 returned for each $1 invested

• 1 Million new fans on Facebook

• Teachers used our content to lecture about inclusion.

• Today, our message is still being reposted. Now, with motivational quotes as a series of inspirational videos.

• From 90% of lack of interest to 96% of Positive Sentiment

• Brazilian Senator Romário invited one of the para-athletes in the video to discuss a bill proposal to create the National Dwarfism day.

“This project goes beyond fighting prejudice. It’s a legacy that leaves a discussion about inclusion.”

Mario Andrada, ECD Rio 2016