Data showed that attention for older missing children’s cases had dropped significantly.

So we created a daily reminder to make sure missing children are never forgotten: 1 million 2 euro coins with the face of a missing child: Liam Vanden Branden, who has been missing for 20 years.

Next to the portrait we also showed the website of Child Focus. We used a live database: depending on which country you’re in, the most relevant cases are shown first.

The supporting media campaign asked to spread hope by spending the coins. This across various media: tv, print, radio, social media, posters and ambient media in stores.

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.

First we needed the King’s approval to replace his portrait, but also that of the Royal Mint, the Secretary of Finance and the 19 governments of the Eurozone. We then commissioned the designer of the common side of the Euro, Luc Luyckx, to turn the missing poster of Liam into a 3D design for a coin.

Finally, on International Missing Children’s Day, Child Focus launched the Coins of Hope during a press conference with the secretary of Finance.

To insure a fast spread across the country, the 1 million coins were randomly divided across banks in Belgium.

The supporting campaign on tv, radio, print ads, posters, social media, website and ambient media was launched at the same time. Encouraging people to quickly spend the coins after sharing a picture with #CoinsofHope. A number of coins were sent to celebrities in advance to get the ball rolling.

The media attention for all missing children resulted in one journalist who even managed to locate one of the children in our campaign: Mansour Safi, who had been missing for almost a year.

€22 million earned media

180 million media impressions

+70 million social reach

+56% share rate of Child Focus posts

+203% engagement on Facebook page