Guerrilla Marketing for Good - The Missing Children Initiative

This is an amazing case of where advertising is used for a worthwhile cause. Here is a description of the case study:

Every year in Germany, more than 100,000 children and young people are reported missing. So, on behalf of “Initiative Vermisste Kinder” (Missing Children’s Initiative), we launched a unique campaign designed to track them down: Deutschland findet euch (Germany will find you). The brief was to quickly establish the Facebook page as a high-profile cause. For this, we started a promotion with focus on people living in the Germany/Austria/Switzerland region.

At the football match FC Bayern Munich versus Real Madrid, Bayern captain Mark van Bommel entered the playing field without a child mascot holding his hand to accompany him. Instead, the Munich player was carrying a poster with a photo of the missing girl Debbie and a reference to the website www.deutschland-findet-euch.de .

Broadcasted live in over 40 countries, the kick-off put the fate of missing children at the forefront of public attention nationwide for the very first time. The game was watched by 15 million TV viewers, followed by more than 40,000 new Facebook fans recruited. There were uncountable reports in numerous print and online media, including all main TV channels. Today, over 100,000 Facebook fans are currently participating via “Deutschland findet Euch”. • 15,000,000 Euro Media coverage. • 40,000 new Facebook fans in one week. • A total global exposure of 55,000,000. • 69,000 viewers in the stadium. • 15,000,000 TV viewers worldwide.

Without any budget we wanted to get as much attention as possible. So we used the famous football match between two of the world’s best football teams: FC Bayern Munich versus Real Madrid. The game was also realised in honour to football legend Franz Beckenbauer. The perfect stage to spread our message. So, the media had already been informed in advance and sports reporter Béla Réthy informed viewers live in 40 countries about the “Deutschland findet Euch” campaign.

Credits:
Advertising Agency: Kempertrautmann, Hamburg, Germany
Creative Director / Account Manager: Marcell Francke
Creative Director/Account Manager/Programming: Patrick Matthiensen
Art Director/Graphic Designer: Leif Johannsen
Copywriter: Sebastian Merget
Graphic Designer: Bruno Luglio
Account Managers: Carolin Panier, Biljana Retzlik
Production: Alexander Kate
Involved Agency: fischerappelt