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, we opened a pop up store in a popular Cape Town mall.

Filled with clothes and accessories donated by SA’s most fashionable designers, shoppers could only pay by registering as an organ donor.

In the first month, the store sold out of all the items, potentially saving almost 6,000 future lives.

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%.

The Exchange was featured extensively across local and international media, driving even more people to the store. 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.

We built 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.

To raise awareness around the impact that one person can have, we created a visual identity that was a startling mix of fashion and medicine. This was carried out through all elements from in-store posters and decals, to furniture and change rooms.

Packaging, reminiscent of an ‘organs in transit’ bag, reinforced our messaging outside the store.

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 networks through Facebook Connect.

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