Every year on World Refugee Day, the UN releases a snapshot of global displacement figures, but those numbers tell only a fraction of the deeply personal and nuanced stories of refugees. And despite the war in Ukraine dominating headlines in 2022, a record-high 100 million people remain displaced across Syria, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Venezuela, and more.

Knowing this, our teams’ objectives were multifold. We sought to highlight refugees in their full humanity, not just as an ambiguous collective whose story ends at being forced to flee empty handed. Real refugee voices helped us shift the conversation from focusing only on what refugees are forced to leave behind, to demonstrating all the intangibles they bring to new communities, too.

Our film tapped into the urgency and media ubiquity of the war in Ukraine to uplift refugee stories across the globe—demonstrating the humanity and contributions of each refugee, if only we welcome them.

Refugees Bring More Than They Carry is a 60s film debuted on World Refugee Day reframing individual and collective refugee experiences in honor of World Refugee Day. Viewers are first shown what refugees are forced to leave behind when they flee: comforts of home, the people they once were, and nearly all physical belongings. But rather than remaining focused on what was left, the film shifts attention to all that refugees bring to new communities instead: hope, open minds, the strength to start again, and so much more. The film is narrated entirely by refugees, and combines personal photos and videos to show an intimate look at the humanity of refugee experiences. While refugee experiences are often homogenized and explained by everyone except refugees, this film hands both power and voice back to the very people who can tell their stories best.

Our film, which ran across paid and organic social and digital OOH, was part of the larger World Refugee Day campaign. Its metrics are therefore folded into the impact of the campaign as a whole; we cannot isolate video metrics alone. The World Refugee Day campaign overall, however, raised brand awareness and reached 9.3M globally (a 35% YOY increase) and increased website traffic to Rescue.org by 67% YOY.

The campaign also drew engagement and advocacy from celebrities, partners, and refugee clients, judged by posts and re-posts of campaign content and anecdotes from refugee clients (“I don’t know how to thank you for your support”).