Case study
MPAN – Invisible Friends
The Missing Persons Advocacy Network (MPAN) works to generate awareness of missing persons, and support the loved ones left behind.
Background
Each year in Australia approximately 38,000 people are reported missing. Whilst 60% are generally found within 48hrs, thousands remain missing long-term. While loved ones never give up hope of finding their missing family member, partner or friend, it’s hard to generate ongoing awareness for their search.
Tension
How can you get the public to help search for missing persons when they’ve been missing for years and there’s no new news?
Approach
Invisible Friends – a campaign that harnessed Facebook’s new facial recognition engine to leverage the power of friend networks.
Facebook profiles were created for missing persons, which meant they could be recognised in photos uploaded to the platform. For people to help in the search, they simply had to become a friend – transforming the search for the missing from manual, to A.I. driven. Designed to get cut-through in mainstream media, we stimulated the conversation about Missing Persons across every major radio network, TV program (including a 10min segment on The Project) and mainstream newspaper.
