We made 1 million 2 Euro coins with the face of a missing child on it (instead of our king).

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 campaign asked to spread hope by spending the coins as quickly as possible. We used radio, print ads and social media but also specific media planning: targeted TV commercials referred to products in the previous ad, encouraging people to pay for that product with a Coin of Hope.

We got the support of banks and a supermarket chain to spread our message on all ATMs and cash registers. In local shops we used cash mats, posters and window stickers.

With our #CoinsofHope we even turned our million Coins of Hope into countless digital ones.

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 media 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

With Coins of Hope we created a permanent medium with infinite impressions across Europe.

The supporting campaign asked people to spread hope by spending the coins. We not only used print, radio, targeted TV commercials and social media to spread our message. But we also used ambient media in local shops, banks and major supermarket chain to communicate on ATMs and cash registers.

Then, we turned our 1 million Coins of Hope into countless virtual ones, by asking people to share a picture using #CoinsofHope or doing a ‘coin swap’ on the campaign website.

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

We wanted to create a permanent reminder for all missing children. Get people to look at the missing children reports in their region and share the campaign.

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.

Each coin also shows our website that uses a live database. Depending on which country you’re in, the most relevant cases are shown first.

Next to broader media such as tv, radio and print, we chose to spread this message through a variety of media at places where people use currency such as ATM screens, cash registers, stores,…

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. Unjustly so, because previous cases have proven that even after years the right information can still provide a breakthrough. Child Focus, the Belgian Center for Missing Children, never gives up hope. They do everything it takes to help the families in their search and to get others involved. The objectives of the campaign were to express Child Focus’ hope for all missing children and to get everyone talking about them again. We wanted to give these children the attention they deserve.