The archive · Advertising · Marketing decision · 2026
'Donate to Play' (2026): Brazilian gamers donate blood for a paid launch-day off
Publicis timed blood drives to game launches: Brazilian law already grants a paid day off for donating, so gamers donated and gained the day to play.
Grupo Pulsa · Publicis Brasil · Ubisoft
What it had to solve
Brazil's labour code (CLT, Article 473 IV) already gives workers a paid day off every twelve months for voluntary blood donation — a right most people never claim. Grupo Pulsa, Latin America's largest blood-therapy group, runs centres in 18 Brazilian states and directs 30% of collected blood to the public health network; stocks fall critically after Carnival and the summer holidays, and its donor base skews older.
How it works
Brazilian law (CLT Article 473 IV) grants every worker one paid day off per year for voluntary blood donation, yet the right is barely known or used. Grupo Pulsa — Latin America's largest blood-therapy group, present in 18 states and directing 30% of collected blood to the public health network — needed younger donors at a time when stocks run critically low after Carnival and holidays.
Publicis Brasil turned that forgotten day off into gamer currency. 'Save the Day' (entered at Cannes as 'Donate to Play') scheduled donor mutirões on the biggest 2026 game-launch dates — beginning 27 February with one of the year's most awaited releases, then 4 and 27 March and 24 and 28 April. A film built from game archetypes such as zombies and samurai spread the mechanic, with support from Ubisoft.
The campaign won the Gold Lion in Health & Wellness at Cannes Lions 2026, with Brazilian trade media also reporting further Silver Lions for the work. Rather than asking gamers to be selfless, it offered a concrete trade: donate blood, then spend your guaranteed day off playing the launch you wanted.
Why it lands
- It monetised an existing right instead of inventing a benefit: the paid day off was already in the law, so the campaign's promise cost nothing extra and could not be refused.
- It anchored donation to the audience's calendar: drives fell on the exact launch dates gamers were already planning around, turning altruism into an event.
- It met a new donor segment in its own culture — game archetypes, launch-day hype, a game publisher as partner — instead of lecturing existing donors.
What it did
Donate to Play won the Gold Lion in Health & Wellness at Cannes Lions 2026; trade coverage also credited it with further Silvers, with Brazilian media listing Lions in Health & Wellness and Social & Creator. The mechanic connected a civic act to a personal, calendar-specific reward, and the drives gave Grupo Pulsa a repeatable format for recruiting young donors.
What you can take
An underused legal entitlement is a free incentive: attached to the dates gamers already circled on their calendars, donating blood feels like a reward, not a sacrifice.
Since then
Donate to Play became Publicis Brasil's flagship Cannes case of 2026 and a template for cause marketing: the mutirão format can be re-run around every major launch season, coupling recurring blood shortages with the games calendar. For Grupo Pulsa the campaign showed how a blood network could recruit young donors by trading on their passions, and the work was publicly credited to the team with Ubisoft as partner.
Sources
- Donate to Play — Save the Day campaign case
- Brasil abre primeiro dia de Cannes Lions com premiações na publicidade
- Iguape ganha destaque em Cannes: Rodolfo Monteiro integra equipe vencedora do Leão de Ouro
- Publicis Transforma Direito à Folga em Estratégia de Doação de Sangue para Grupo Pulsa
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