Developed by Havas Play France, FireCatchers is a campaign that demonstrates how cultural behaviour, platform-native creativity and the power of fandom can turn everyday moments into collective impact. 

Wildfires in France are not sudden disasters. They begin quietly, almost invisibly. A thin line of smoke. A small signal. A moment that can easily be missed. 

And yet, that moment is everything. 

Even with advanced monitoring technologies, early detection still depends on one simple thing: someone noticing something at the right time. But even with hundreds of surveillance cameras, there are never enough eyes watching. 

Meanwhile, millions of people gather daily on Twitch. Before every stream begins, audiences wait. Watching. Focused. Ready. 

The question that sparked the idea was simple.  What if that attention could be used for something else? 

Grand Prix winner at the Internationalist, FireCatchers has already earned international recognition for the way it transformed cultural insight into real-world impact. Building on this achievement, the campaign continues its awards journey, with multiple nominations across leading industry shows including the Clio Awards, Festival of Media Global and The One Show. 

On Twitch, waiting is part of the culture. 

The “Starting Soon” screen is a shared moment where thousands of viewers are already present, looking at the screen, anticipating what comes next. It is passive, but highly engaged. 

FireCatchers transformed that ritual into something active. Instead of a static waiting screen, viewers were shown live surveillance feeds from high-risk forest areas, accompanied by one simple instruction: 

If you see smoke, report it in the chat. 

No new behaviour. Just a new purpose. 

Gamers are trained observers. They notice movement, anomalies, subtle visual changes. It is part of how they play, how they interact, how they engage. 

At the same time, wildfire detection requires exactly that skill. Attention to detail, in real time, at scale. 

The insight was not to create a new system, but to connect two existing ones: 

– a national need for more eyes  

– a cultural moment where attention already exists   

By tapping into platform culture and fan behaviour, the campaign turned individual focus into collective protection, transforming a moment of waiting into a civic reflex. 

FireCatchers worked because it felt native to the platform. Leading French streamers integrated the system directly into their waiting screens, preserving the creator‑audience dynamic fans value. Viewers simply typed the camera number when they spotted something unusual. When several alerts aligned, the signal was escalated to emergency services for verification.

A passive audience became an active network. As the initiative gained traction, 646 additional streamers joined, multiplying reach and strengthening the system. What began as individual attention evolved into coordinated action, proving how fandom, when mobilised authentically, can deliver powerful impact. 

During its first phase, FireCatchers engaged communities representing nearly 600,000 followers. Together, they generated 2.190 hours of active surveillance, detected 5 fires and helping protect 1.700 hectares of forest. This was not engagement for engagement’s sake, it was attention converted into tangible environmental protection. 

What started as a local pilot is now scaling, with Spain and Italy set to adopt the system in 2026. FireCatchers demonstrates how culture, technology and human behaviour can align to create a new kind of civic participation, one where play becomes a catalyst for real‑world change. 

It stands as a powerful example of how Havas Play transforms cultural habits and community passion into solutions that matter.