When 9 days in a studio flat set off a PLN 251 million machine – Łatwogang, Cancer Fighters and an influencer marketing lesson that can’t be planned

The numbers that say it all

PLN 251 million raised in 9 days. 1.6 million concurrent viewers at the finale. #1 in the world among charity streams in the history of the internet. And not a single zloty spent on advertising.

Piotr “Łatwogang” Garkowski went live on 17 April 2026 with a webcam pointed at himself and a single song on loop. Nine days later he had broken a Guinness world record and, in the process, handed the industry the best influencer marketing case study of recent years. Except that nobody here planned a thing.

How did it start?

It all started with a song. Rapper Bedoes 2115 recorded “Ciągle tutaj jestem (diss na raka)” with 11-year-old Maja Mecan – a girl supported by the Cancer Fighters Foundation who is fighting her third cancer relapse. Łatwogang proposed a challenge: for every heart under his TikTok, the stream would last one second. The likes topped 767,000, which meant exactly 9 days of non-stop broadcasting.

The mechanism was simple and brilliant:

Step 1 – the emotional spark. The song goes viral. Its authenticity means that within a few days it moves thousands of Poles. Łatwogang reacts on impulse, not strategically.

Step 2 – the participation mechanism. Everyone who likes the video becomes a co-author of the campaign. People decided for themselves that the stream would last 9 days. A sense of agency and ownership across the whole community – from the very first moment.

Step 3 – a wave of influencers without briefs. Stars, rappers, actors and athletes began turning up on their own initiative. No contracts, no fees, no agreements. A pure, unplanned network effect.

Step 4 – brands that donated instead of advertising. Companies saw what was happening and joined the fundraiser, with no form of compensation. What did they get in return? Hundreds of millions of views and authentic, spontaneous recommendations from influencers.

The companies that gained without buying advertising

From a marketing perspective, this is the heart of the story. Several dozen brands donated tens of millions of zloty in total to the Cancer Fighters fundraiser: no briefs, no creative, no influencer contracts. And yet they received something other companies pay fortunes for: spontaneous, authentic mentions from creators watched by millions of Poles.

The largest corporate donors included Zen, Budimex and Tymbark – each of these companies donated PLN 2.5 million. Significant support also came from Kuchnia Vikinga, Wydawnictwo Niezwykłe, XTB, Neboa, Eveline Cosmetics, Allegro, Savicki Biżuteria, BeBioCosmetics and Grupa Żabka.

The record-holder turned out to be XTB, one of Europe’s largest investment platforms and brokers for trading shares and financial instruments, which donated around PLN 6.2 million in total over the course of the stream.

Rafał Brzoska, representing InPost, doubled his earlier donation in the final minutes – giving PLN 6 million in total and announcing it live on camera, in a moment that instantly went round social media.

Key observation: none of these brands paid influencers for a recommendation. They donated to the fundraiser, and the creators themselves, spontaneously, mentioned them in posts, stories and directly on the stream. It is the most authentic form of influencer marketing there is.

The stars who turned up uninvited

Those who took part included Dorota “Doda” Rabczewska, Robert Lewandowski, Adam Małysz, Cezary Pazura, Roksana Węgiel, Edyta Pazura, Katarzyna Nosowska and Blanka Lipińska. Some of the stars chose to shave their heads during the stream – in solidarity with the sick children who had lost their hair during treatment.

Among the largest individual donations from creators was Bedoes 2115 (PLN 1,000,000)

The engagement mechanism was fundamentally different from traditional influencer marketing. No creator received a brief or a fee. They saw what was happening – and wanted to be part of something good. Each famous face drew in the next, because nobody wanted to be the person who didn’t help. The network of engagement grew organically, driven by social proof on a scale no media plan could ever reach.

Why does it work? The anatomy of organic influencer marketing

Authenticity above all. No influencer appeared on the stream because they had been given a contract – they appeared because they wanted to. And viewers could feel it. As many as 97% of online comments about the campaign were supportive – a result unheard of in any paid campaign.

The whole campaign had a single message: children with cancer need help. No politics, no divisions. Media scholar Prof. Monika Kaczmarek-Śliwińska of the University of Warsaw judged that the campaign’s apolitical nature was hugely important – with polarisation running high, it would have been hard to generate that kind of interest and that kind of reach.

Earned media in its purest form. The companies that donated were not “partners” or “sponsors” in the traditional sense. They were donors. And influencers, entirely spontaneously, began naming them as brands with values – in posts, stories and on the stream itself, in front of millions of viewers.

Unprecedented scale. The previous record in the category “Most money raised during a charity stream” stood at just over $19 million – set by the French-speaking streamer collective Z EVENT in 2025. Łatwogang raised more than three times as much.

“The Łatwogang and Cancer Fighters fundraiser could become the WOŚP of the young generation – but in the form of intensive streams, preceded by reactions from internet users and followed by people giving back in the form of donations.” – Prof. Monika Kaczmarek-Śliwińska, media scholar, University of Warsaw

Lessons for brands and agencies

Łatwogang’s stream cannot be planned or replicated one-to-one. But it reveals a few truths that should change the way every marketer thinks.

Look for value, not just reach. Before the stream, Łatwogang had a smaller YouTube channel than many other creators. But he had authenticity and agency. That produced an effect no creator with a fan base five times larger could have bought.

Back initiatives, don’t just buy placements. The brands that donated to the fundraiser didn’t “buy” anything in the traditional sense. They did something good – and that is exactly what paid off virally. Cause marketing is no longer a CSR niche. It has become one of the most effective brand-building tools.

Build the readiness to react spontaneously. Companies such as InPost and Tymbark reacted quickly because they had internal processes that allowed lightning-fast decisions. Brands with long approval chains missed the window – or showed up too late to make any real impact.

Real time is worth more than evergreen. InPost’s donation, announced by Rafał Brzoska live on camera at the finale – that was a moment that lived on online for many hours. No planned sponsored post of similar value would have achieved that effect.

For our part, we want to warmly congratulate Piotr and Borys on creating something that moved so many people and set off a huge wave of kindness. Thanks to you, the days ahead will certainly never be the same.

Editor’s note: This post was written on 27 April 2026, the day after the stream ended. Data on the growth in individual creators’ reach after the campaign will be available in the coming days – we will update the article once the first Social Blade and SocialBook analyses appear. It is worth keeping an eye on: a sharp jump in followers for the creators who appeared on the stream will be further proof of the power of organic influencer marketing.