Coins of Hope
Child Focus (Belgian Center for Missing and Sexually Exploited Children)
Issue 40 | September 2016
Agency
These Days Wunderman
Creative Team
Creative Directors Pieter Staes Manuel Ostyn Sam De Volder Mateusz Mroszczak Art Director Kate Bellefroid Copywriter Jolien Tuyteleers
Production Team
Design Director Max Heirbaut Designers Inge Vanhees Lotte Neirynck Senior Front-End Developer Bram Verdyck Front-End Developer Jill Van Reeth Developer Veerle Struyf Technology Officer Olivier Berger Solution Architect Stijn Janssens UX Designer Krisje Verbert Performance Niky Patyn RTV Producers Annelies Deneckere Ingeborg Van Hoof Sound Engineers Mathias Lewis Eli Sundermann 3D Production Creative Conspiracy Film Production Vice
Other Credits
Client (Chief Communication Officer) Dirk Depover Account Managers Seppe Dogge Jentina Van Eynde Project Manager Claudio Capo Chief Strategy Officer Toon Diependaele Strategic Planners Katleen De Vlieger Jef Raeman Content & Social Media Director PR – Finn Geerlinde Pevenage
Date
May 2016
Background
In Europe, a child is reported missing every two minutes. Most are found quickly. For others it takes weeks, months, even years. But Child Focus, a child protection agency based in Brussels, never loses hope.
It wanted to find a way to draw attention to the issue of missing children, and help families keep their hopes alive.
Idea
The challenge was to find a new, unique and permanent medium to spread the message of hope.
The answer was coins. It took two years for the agency and client to persuade the relevant Belgian and EU authorities to mint a new €2 coin.
One million coins went into circulation on May 25th, International Missing Children's Day.
Each of the coins depicted Liam Van den Branden, a child missing since 1996, together with the legend 'Missing' and Child Focus's web address where details of all missing children can be found.
The campaign was launched with a media blitz centred on a hashtag, #CoinsofHope, and using TV, ATM screens, posters and ambient media.
The campaign asked people to spread hope by spending the coins, thus ensuring they acted as a permanent reminder of Liam and other missing children.
Results
As of August, the campaign had recorded 180 million impressions; a social reach of 70 million; and €22 million worth of earned media. The campaign is still running, so results are not final.
Our Thoughts
What you realise when you watch or read interviews with parents of missing children is that, no matter how slender the threads or how weighty the despair, they cling to the belief that their child is still alive.
Their resilience is humbling, and it falls to all society to do what it can to keep the hope going. This is an extraordinarily powerful and moving idea – the notion that a coin is a permanent medium and that anyone who spends or receives one can take a moment to think about the fate of missing children and the importance of never giving up.