The International Center for Missing and Exploited Children

The International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (ICMEC) is a small organization with an overwhelmingly important mission: protect children everywhere from sexual abuse, exploitation, and abduction. Every year, more than a million children are reported missing in just a handful of countries where missing children data are collected and available.

VCU AdVenture Summer Camp

Students were selected via a very competitive application process to participate in this eight week case competition. We were told that we’d be judged on our originality and ability to think big.

The Ask: Build on the success of ICMEC’s 2020 “Football Cares” campaign to make a global campaign have long-term positive impact on our broader efforts to promote our cause (missing and exploited children) (Full “brief” here)

The Challenge: We need to increase overall brand awareness of ICMEC and build a campaign to make actual change.

The Approach: Fulfill the client goal of being recognized as a leader in stopping the spread of CSAM (Child Sexual Abuse Material) by focusing campaign efforts on a more niche topic.

The Process:

• Primary research on the organization, its causes, and its ultimate goals

• Secondary research (internet sources, interviews of trafficked minors, court cases and sting operations, papers about the dark web, porn stars) on the production, proliferation, and the stop of CSAM

• Primary research: Cindy Gallop & Cyber forensics FBI Agent

The Problem Humanity Faces: The internet is an integral part of the supply chain that feeds CSAM. It powers anonymity and stretches across international borders, making it nearly impossible to monitor perpetrators and serve justice.

The Demographic: 18-35 yr olds who have an outsized influence on online culture. We need to mobilize an audience that believes that the internet can be used as a force for good.

Brand Truth: ICMEC has been working with companies like Paypal and Amazon Web Services to build products and set regulations to stop the sales of CSAM.But for change to happen,tech companies and internet service providers need to be held to a higher accountability.

Insight: The internet makes it easy for people to see only what they want to see.

The Strategy: ICMEC confronts us about with the truth about the internet.We’re going to get people to stop ignoring a problem that’s part of their everyday lives and mobilize them to make a difference.

The Creative: A Google Doodle Takeover on May 25th, International Missing Children’s Day and a new landing page that teaches people about CSAM, the prevalence of it, and what they can do to help.