For Ukrainians, February 24th 2022 is a date that will forever mark when everything changed, when war came to the doorstep of the country. Our clients at UNICEF wanted to properly remind the world of a year in a time of war.

Our UNICEF clients approached us to create a short film that would contextualize the experience of Ukraine;s children- rallying people for these blameless victims of the war.

We wanted to show the strength and courage of Ukraine’s children.

The goal was to create something that made the war feel tangible and personal for viewers, and remind that, for the children of Ukraine, this is their reality.

Our producer in Poland worked with Sasha, to establish the trust needed to tell her very real, and very personal story. By combing through hundreds of personal photos and videos we began to tell Sasha’s story- a story of all Ukraine’s children.

A Lost Year is a film meant to capture the reality of a year stolen by war for the children of Ukraine.

A year of missing grandma. Bomb shelter haircuts, endless boredom, constant fear, cold dinners, air raid siren symphonies, wondering if college is going to happen, flickering lights, 2-hours of sleep, waving goodbye to dad, dried tears, lockdown romance.

Wondering if the world still cares.

The film starts in a classroom in Ukraine, evacuated in haste when the air raid siren sounded. Left behind is a cell phone that stirs to life with a reminder of the memories of the past year.

We are then brought into the life of a real person, Sasha, a 16-year old girl from Zaporizhya who has actually lived the upheaval of a year divided - beginning with the normalcy of a teenage life before devolving into the chaos of war.

The primary target audience was someone who follows UNICEF on social media, in the 18-35 age demographic. Someone who has been following events in Ukraine, but might have slipped off their radar in the recent months.

Overall they are people supportive of programmes supporting Ukraine’s children, and after having watched the video, will be a more adamant supporter of their government spending on programmes for Ukraine’s children or will call for the government’s continued support and help in achieving peace for the children of Ukraine.

The goal was for the audience to leave impressed by the resilience of the children of Ukraine while understanding that no child should have to live through 365 days of this horror. This war has already robbed them of a year of their lives, we cannot allow for it to rob children also of their futures.

From a strategy standpoint the

The content was released on February 24th across all UNICEF social platforms, to coincide with the 1-year anniversary of the beginning of the war in Ukraine.

Given the timely nature of being tied to an anniversary, the push across these channels was to land immediately, looking to touch and move the cohorts of audiences that had proclivity to care about the cause in Ukraine. To do so, we targeted audiences familiar with UNICEF’s work in addition to the organization’s existing followers.

The response and success was overwhelming, achieving a viral impact with the following results in just the first two weeks of the film’s launch:

- 89 million video views on Facebook and Instagram (47m views over 15 sec)

- 2.4 million video views on YouTube (views over 30 sec)

- 28,578,964 Instagram views

The film was created to reach a global audience, to drive impact and action with a defined audience of UNICEF supporters who follow UNICEF on social media in the 18 – 35 age demographic.

The intent was to engage someone who is overall supportive of programmes supporting Ukraine’s children, and after watching the video, will be a more adamant supporter of their government spending on programmes for Ukraine’s children or will call for the government’s continued support and help in achieving peace for the children of Ukraine.

The film was distributed across all of UNICEF’s social ecosystem, intending to meet audiences on all platforms where they might engage with the content.

The response and success was overwhelming, achieving viral impact with:

- 89 million video views on Facebook and Instagram (47m views over 15 sec)

- 2.4 million video views on YouTube (views over 30 sec)

- Instagram Views: 28,578,964