Coins of Hope

One million coins redesigned to help find missing children.

Office: Belgium

Client: Child Focus

Challenge

In Europe, every two minutes a child is reported missing. Some remain missing for years. Child Focus, the Belgian Centre for Missing Children, never gives up hope. We had to create a universal reminder to make sure these children are never forgotten.

Inspiration

In an average lifetime, or five year period, a €2 euro coin will pass through the hands of more than 2,500 owners.

Idea

With the Royal Mint we designed and co-created one million €2 euro coins featuring the face of a real missing child: Liam Vanden Branden, who was missing for 20 years. Each coin also featured the website to draw attention to all missing children.

To use the euro coin as a new medium was by no means straightforward. We needed the King’s approval to replace his portrait; we needed approval from the 19 governments of the Eurozone; and the Royal Mint’s expertise and counsel to ensure all legal criteria and governance was met. On International Missing Children’s Day, Child Focus brought the Coins of Hope into circulation.

The supporting campaign asked people to spread hope by spending the coins as quickly as possible.

Growth

Coins of Hope achieved a powerful outcome by increasing the number of found children by one: we could not be happier that as a direct consequence of the campaign, Mansour Safi was located by a journalist after being missing for almost a year.

We grew the social reach of Child Focus’s ambition by over 70 million mentions, increased the share rate of Child Focus posts by 56%, and improved engagement on the charity’s primary media channel Facebook by more than 200%.

Coins of Hope was recognised by the prestigious Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, winning Gold, Silver and Bronze Lions across five separate categories.