The more people keep an eye out for missing children, the greater the chance of finding them. So VML Belgium and Child Focus have more than 11,000 people (so far) out looking. It is recruiting runners.
Miles for the Missing, the campaign for Child Focus, that coincides with International Missing Children’s Day activates the vast and ever-growing running community on Strava to help search for missing children. Within less than a week, Miles for the Missing had already gained nearly 11,000 members on Strava. To increase the likelihood of receiving useful tips further, VML also developed an ingenious route generator that uses the Strava heatmap to guide runners along as many varied and strategically relevant locations as possible.
In 2024, Child Focus opened 22% more disappearance cases than the year before. This is why the organisation is always looking for new ways to spread its search notices to as large an audience as possible. Members of the Miles for the Missing Strava club will receive a notification on their smartphone when a child goes missing. By viewing the search notice, they can help in the search simply by doing what they love – running.
“Belgians collectively run millions of miles every year. And they pass through the very places where Child Focus needs extra eyes when a child goes missing. By turning Strava into a new medium to activate them, we can significantly accelerate the search for missing children,” stated Kasper Janssens, creative director at VML.
Child Focus already shares search notices on Instagram, Facebook, and X, asking people to spread them as widely as possible. But with Strava, the organisation has gained a permanent new medium to share these messages with an even broader audience.
On the Miles for the Missing platform, runners can generate alternative, less conventional routes. These are based on the Strava heatmap, as well as data such as the location and time of the disappearance and the runner’s own location. In addition, AI guides runners past ‘custom waypoints’ like bus stops, train stations, or gas stations – places where the chance of finding missing children is greatest.
“Runners pass through countless places, but they often stick to the same routes. By encouraging them to run different paths, we increase the chance of eyewitness accounts,” Janssens continued.
To reach as many other runners across the country as possible, a national campaign is now running on digital out-of-home screens and social media. Influencers and well-known runners are also working to persuade as many people as possible to join Miles for the Missing. Some big names are already members of the club at the campaign’s launch, including Bazart singer, Mathieu Terryn; media personality, Linde Merckpoel; and Hilde Dosogne, the woman who ran 366 marathons last year to raise money for cancer research. But the campaign will continue indefinitely, because the Strava club is a permanent channel that Child Focus can actively use in its ongoing search for missing children.
The campaign’s success is largely due to the massive media attention the club received at launch. Articles in all major Belgian newspapers, top stories on national radio and TV news, and a strong presence on social media helped the campaign sprint out of the starting blocks.
Anyone who wants to run Miles for the Missing can join the Strava club.
Credits;
Client: Child Focus
Client Team: Stephan Smets, Stéphanie Leyn, Selyna Ayuso Ferrandiz
Agency: VML Belgium
Executive Creative Directors: Kasper Janssens & Arjen Tarras
Creative Leads: Kasper Janssens & Arjen Tarras
Copywriters: Tomas Van Loon, Hannah Candries, Jelle Raats, Yves Donceel, Gavin Watt
Art Directors: Patrick Vermeylen, Rik Hermans
Strategists: Jef Pelkmans, Gaëlle Maes
Account Team: Pieter Van Schil, Jessica Jacobs, Molly Waeytens
Design: Samuel Allemand
Motion Design: Lucas Van Orshaegen
DTP: Jan-Bart Debruyne, Theo Hagtingius
Development: Bram Verdyck, Sam Serrien
PR Partner: Ogilvy Social.Lab
Sound Vesign: Menno Van Riet
