2021 Brand Experience & Activation

MISSING FIRST AID

TitleMISSING FIRST AID
BrandCHILD FOCUS
Product/ServiceCHILD FOCUS IS A BELGIAN FOUNDATION THAT SUPPORTS PREVENTION AND INVESTIGATION OF MISSING CHILDREN, ABDUCTED CHILDREN, RUNAWAY CHILDREN, AND SEXUALLY ABUSED AND EXPLOITED CHILDREN, ALONG WITH PSYCHOLOGICAL AND LEGAL SUPPORT TO THE VICTIMS.
Category A06. Not-for-profit / Charity / Government
Entrant WUNDERMAN THOMPSON Antwerp, BELGIUM
Idea Creation WUNDERMAN THOMPSON Antwerp, BELGIUM
Production WUNDERMAN THOMPSON Antwerp, BELGIUM
Credits
Name Company Position
Stephan Smets Child Focus Chief Communications Officer
Nel Broothaerts Child Focus Chief Prevention and development officer
Stéphanie Leyn Child Focus /
Pieter Staes Wunderman Thompson Creative Director
Manuel Ostyn Wunderman Thompson Creative Director
Patrick Vermeylen Wunderman Thompson Creative team
Catherine Hermans Wunderman Thompson Creative team
Cédric Trefois Wunderman Thompson Creative team
Tomas Van Loon Wunderman Thompson Creative team
Charlotte Feremans Wunderman Thompson Account Manager
Carole Steger Wunderman Thompson Account Manager
Diede Michiels Wunderman Thompson Account Executive
Kenny Smet Wunderman Thompson Designer
Dorien Wendelen Wunderman Thompson Designer
Bert Beckers Wunderman Thompson Illustrator
Filip Walgraef Freelance Illustrator/Animator
Sam Serrien Wunderman Thompson Development
Lynn Pinsart Wunderman Thompson copywriter
Jérôme Van Den Broeck Freelance Copywriter (French)
Michel De Schauwer Freelance Copywriter (French)
Gilles De Bruyere Freelance Copywriter (French)
Karel Van Gucht Wunderman Thompson Editor
Theo Hagtingius Wunderman Thompson DTP
Jan-Bart Debruyne Wunderman Thompson DTP
Ingeborg Van Hoof Wunderman Thompson Agency Producer
Amélie Van Campen Wunderman Thompson Agency Producer
AKA De Mensen AKA De Mensen AKA De Mensen Production Company
Nathalie Basteyns AKA De Mensen Director
Maxime Lahousse / DOP
Eline Rousseau / Producer
Rana Cools / Producer
Fatma Taspinar / Presentation
Menno Van Riet Wunderman Thompson Sound Studio

Why is this work relevant for Brand Experience & Activation?

Missing First Aid is the first course for parents to prevent their children from going missing and that teaches them how to react when the unthinkable happens. The course takes more than one hour and dives into every possible situation, giving parents answers to every possible question. Next to that, the campaign that invited parents to take the course was based on an important insight that came directly from the course itself; the worst almost never happens. But thanks to Child Focus, people can now be prepared for it.

Background

Child Focus, the Belgian center for missing and sexually exploited children was launched 25 years ago. Ever since, they have been helping parents of missing children. Every year, on May 25th, the official day of missing children, Child Focus launches a campaign to highlight their efforts. Mostly, these campaigns ask for people’s help in the search for missing children, but this year Child Focus wanted to focus on prevention. Instead of trying to find back children, they wanted to prevent children from going missing or from running away from home.

Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)

Together with the police, the missing person’s department and different specialists, Child Focus launched Missing First Aid. An online course that teaches parents what to do when the unthinkable happens. People could take the four chapter course on an interactive website and get helpful prevention tips or useful information to help them when their child goes missing. The course was launched in a tv commercial, print ads, on radio and social media, reassuring parents they will probably never have to put it into practice. But we also addressed parents with special announcements in supermarkets, saying a child was found back, before inviting them to take the course. And for once, the nationwide outdoor network that’s normally used to spread missing posters, was used to show found posters.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

Child Focus does everything to help parents when a child goes missing. But the best way to help, is preventing children from disappearing. So, instead of doing a short-term campaign that asks people to look for children, let’s launch a long-term prevention campaign.

Describe the execution (30% of vote)

The course was created with the help of the police, the missing person’s department and different specialists. We brought together all their tips, tricks and extra information in a four chapter course presented by Fatma Taspinar, a Belgian journalist who is known for her documentaries about missing children. Each chapter was an interview between her and a specialist. This audio course was made available on an interactive website where people got access to a lot of background information. Later, the course was also made available as podcast on Spotify. People who finished the course got an official MFA certificate. They could download this and print it out to put on their wall, or share it on their Facebook wall. But we also made a filter, so they could even put it on their background wall during video calls.

List the results (30% of vote)

The campaign got more than 40 million media impressions. And with an engagement rate of 9% it shows it touched the right nerve. Already we reached 2 out of 3 Belgian households, but Missing First Aid will always stay available for every Belgian parent.