Russian drivers use airbrush art to not just brand their cars, but also to protect them. The eye-catching cars would be found much easier, in case they were stolen.

We used this social learning for a better cause. Uber, the ‘Search for missing children’ organisation and the Russian Ministry of Internal affairs commissioned artists to create the images of three missing children. We applied the eye-catching portraits of the missing children on partners cars in order to attract the attention of the witnesses.

Instead of aerography, we used car stickers with artworks illustrated in a way they would look like a real airbrush. This decreased investments of time and money in production and ensured the eye-catchiness of the artworks. The stickers were placed on the cars of Uber partners who volunteered for the cause. Drivers were advised to choose short trips across the congested city center to increase the visibility of our message. Uber users found out about the search through the app and others saw the cars on the streets, tv channels and social media.

We have found one of the missing children thanks to the witness, who reported about the potential location. In less than 2 hours after the official launch of the campaign, faces of the missing children appeared on the most popular websites, got featured on federal TV channels and kicked off conversations and posts across social media platforms. Search for Missing Children organisation received an inquiry from Uber’s competitor to join the project on a volunteer basis. For 0 media investment, we unlocked $1.2 million in earned media and reached 22.1 million people (estimated via similarweb and TNS tools).