Picture-Maze Gets Public to Take a Second Look at Missing Children
Photographs are the lifeblood of the efforts of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), so it was natural that they were the focal point of the organization's first national public affairs campaign last year supporting Missing Children's Day in May.
The month-long campaign, "Picture Them Home," used a powerful maze exhibit to demonstrate the magnitude of the problem of missing child cases and to encourage the public to take a closer look at photographs of missing children disseminated by the Center on milk cartons, postcards and other venues.
The campaign also laid the name equity groundwork for establishing a "Picture Them Home" brand - planting the seeds for potential corporate sponsors and media partners - and educated parents about the importance of keeping current pictures of their children on hand.
Ironically, NCMEC is a victim of its own success.
The millions of pictures it generates of missing children nationwide are so commonplace that the public has become somewhat desensitized to them, says Julia Cartwright, NCMEC's director of public affairs.
To substantiate the powerful role photographs play in the recovery of a missing child, NCMEC conducted two major surveys of both law enforcement officials and the general public.
The survey results provided compelling news hooks for the publicity campaign, which generated 81 news broadcasts in the United States reaching more than 7 million viewers. The survey findings include:
- One in seven missing children are recovered as a result of photo identification.
- While more than 90 percent of adults say they have seen photos of missing children, less than half believe they could identify a missing child in a photograph.
On May 12, the day of the news conference, USA Today broke the survey results and ran a story about the campaign, using a moving account of a two-week-old missing baby who was returned to his family after someone recognized his photo.
Visualizing Missing Children
NCMEC relied on the corporate contacts of its board members, which include Polaroid, Computer Associates and Wal-Mart, to help launch the new national effort.
Last fall, Polaroid told its PR agency, Paine & Associates, about the project and asked the shop to brainstorm campaign ideas. The Costa Mesa, Calif.-based agency developed the maze concept, an exhibit which allowed people to walk through twisted panels emblazoned with thousands of pictures of missing children. The maze conveyed the feeling of being lost.
It also provided a provocative visual for broadcast media at the press briefing in Washington, D.C., also featuring NCMEC's president who unveiled the survey results, a family whose child had been recovered because his picture was recognized and a national police spokesman.
To localize the survey results, P&A worked with NCMEC to identify stories of children who had been recovered as a result of photo identification in several key markets. These efforts resulted in at least 10 markets using localized story angles, says Cynthia Rude, P&A's VP. In addition to the 81 broadcasts generated by the campaign, AP Radio Network and ABC Radio Network covered the press briefing.
Setting the Tone
The national coverage that the campaign achieved created a baseline of awareness from which to grow the "Picture Them Home" brand, says Cartwright.
Over the next two years, NCMEC will continue its national call to action under this umbrella public service campaign and determine through market research whether the effort helps to change perceptions on the role citizens can play to help recover children through attention to their photographs.
The campaign will have to change quite a few minds. According to one of the NCMEC surveys, 68 percent of adults erroneously believe fingerprints are the most effective tool in recovering a missing child.
To expand the campaign's message over the next few years, NCMEC will target the photo industry for corporate support, asking them to print and distribute pictures of missing children and take up-to-date pictures of children for parents.
There are also creative opportunities for the media to cover the story. A few news organizations reported on the importance of photos by testing the public's recollection of those child photos they had been exposed to.
Using a picture of a child model that had been posted in a public place like a mall, these media outlets hired the model to walk around the same public area to see if passersby recognized the child from the picture. These stories created interesting localized angles on the issue of photo recognition, says Cartwright.
Other outreach efforts may include motivating companies to publish pictures of missing children in their internal newsletters and inviting employers to use the issue of missing children for employee-based pledge campaigns. (Cynthia Rude, 714/427-3126; NCMEC, 703/516-6139)
Paine & Associates
Headquarters: Costa Mesa, Calif.
Employees: 30
Founded: 1986
Billings: $4 million
Clients: California Pizza Kitchen, Polaroid, Miller Brewing Co.