In ten years, Nizan Guanaes, founder of Brazilian Grupo ABC, and four ex-DDB Brasil employees, have turned their little start-up, Agencia Africa, into Ad Age’s International Agency of the Year 2014.

The original idea behind the agency was to maintain a small number of big clients. The agency does spectacular, and often risky, work – for huge clients like Procter & Gamble, AmBev and Banco Itau.

It also does spectacular work for smaller clients now, the most recent for GRAACC Children’s Cancer Hospital.

Hair loss is an unavoidable part of cancer treatment for many. Children find this a difficult side effect to deal with and it has a tendency to damage their morale. So Africa turned this ‘symbol of weakness’ into a symbol of unbreakable hope, an awarenesss campaign and a funding stream.

It asked patients to donate the hair they lost during cancer treatment…and had it compressed into diamonds. The gem stones were then embedded in a jewellery line, designed by renowned jeweler, Ara Vartanian.The agency created an exhibition of photos of the patients wearing the jewels, shot by a selection of Brazil’s top photographers. And it used these photographs in print and online ads and social media, to spread awareness for children and adolescents with cancer and boost patients’ self-esteem.

The jewellery collection is now a source of income for GRAACC.

Unbreakable Hope – GRAACC/Ara Vartanian from Agencia Africa on Vimeo.