In Europe, every two minutes a child is reported missing. Some of them are found quickly, but others remain missing for years. Data showed that attention for older missing children’s cases had dropped significantly. The missing posters and social posts have become old news. Child Focus, the Belgian Center for Missing Children, never gives up hope. They do everything it takes to help the families in their search. Therefore, we created ‘Coins of Hope'.

1 million 2 euro coins with the face of a missing child, instead of that of our king. With Coins of Hope we made a daily reminder to make sure missing children are never forgotten.

The objective was to spread hope for all missing children and to get everyone talking about them again. Our goal was to encourage millions of people, in our country and beyond, to spend a moment considering the fate of missing children and their families each time they find a Coin of Hope in their pocket or come across one on a social networking site. Because, who knows, one of these people could be the crucial witness, a donor or a volunteer that helps to bring a missing child home in the future. Previous cases have proven that even after years, the right information can still provide a breakthrough.

The supporting campaign asked to spread hope by spending the coins. Targeted TV commercials referred to the product in the previous commercial, encouraging people to pay for it with the coins. We also used specific media targeted at people when they use currency: ATM screens, supermarket cash register screens, posters, cash trays and door stickers in local shops.

The campaign didn’t only ask to spend the coins. It also drove people to the location based website, which shows information on every missing child in Europe. Depending on which country you’re in, the most relevant cases are shown first.

We also turned our 1 million coins into countless virtual ones, by asking people to share a picture, using #CoinsofHope. Or, if they didn’t have a Coin of Hope yet, by doing a ‘coin swap’ with any other coin on the campaign website.

To maximize influential support, direct mails containing the very first coins were sent to politicians, athletes and celebrities. They shared a picture of the coin and made Liam’s face just as famous as theirs.

Both national and international news channels covered our story. With a lot of attention on all missing children. The campaign generated millions of earned media and media impressions. But more importantly: all these millions led to just 1 result that is truly of immeasurable value.

One of the missing children in our campaign, Mansour Safi, was found. A journalist of a famous Belgian newspaper decided to investigate the case for his article and finally, managed to locate the boy. With this, we got the most concrete result we could have hoped for. And once again, this proves that renewed attention for missing children pays off.