ICMP – Missing Ukrainians campaign

Over 23,000 Ukrainians have gone missing due to the russian invasion. The International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) launched an informational campaign aimed at Ukrainians living in European countries. The campaign’s objectives were to build awareness about ICMP’s activities and to encourage families of the missing to report their relatives.

ICMP – Missing Ukrainians campaign

ICMP Missing Ukrainians Campaign: A Vital Step in Reuniting Families

Context:

Over 23,000 Ukrainians have gone missing due to the Russian invasion. The International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) launched an informational campaign aimed at Ukrainians living in European countries. The campaign’s objectives were to build awareness about ICMP’s activities and to encourage families of the missing to report their relatives.

Oksana Romaniuk
Oksana Romanyuk, Communications & Outreach Program Officer at ICMP

“The International Commission on Missing Persons is an intergovernmental organization headquartered in The Hague. Our mandate is to ensure cooperation between governments and other responsible institutions in the search for persons missing due to conflict, human rights violations, disasters, etc., and to assist them in this. It is the only international organization dedicated exclusively to the issue of missing persons. The Ukrainian Program of ICMP began its work in Ukraine in July 2022. One of its tasks was to help Ukrainian state institutions establish processes related to the identification of Ukrainians missing due to the war and to establish communication with the families of the missing. The key goal of the campaign in European countries, where Ukrainians are currently residing, was to help the families of the missing identify their relatives by providing their DNA samples.”

The campaign’s first stages were in Poland and Germany, where Ukrainian refugees reside. As ICMP is a nonprofit organization, cost-effectiveness was a vital factor for the campaign’s success. Therefore, to achieve the project’s goals, we developed a communication campaign using exclusively digital tools.

Approach:

The first step in effective communication campaign planning was analyzing the target audience. We estimated the potential number of refugees with missing relatives. Based on the figure of 23,000 missing and the percentage of people who left Ukraine after the Russian invasion, we found that around 10,000 people in target regions might have missing relatives. However, targeting capabilities on platforms with such criteria are limited. Therefore, we decided to communicate with a broader audience of Ukrainians abroad. We identified the main parameters of the target segment: Ukrainian women aged 18 years and above, currently residing temporarily in Poland and Germany. The analysis determined that this audience’s size is approximately 2.9-3.4 million people.

The next step was defining targeting criteria, as it was important for the campaign to be cost-effective and to communicate only with the relevant audience. Studying interests and behaviors led us to these criteria – language (Ukrainian, English, Russian) and behavioral characteristics – people far from home with a primary interest in Ukraine and related communities. These criteria became the basis for the campaign’s targeting.

Tools:

To maximize the reach of the relevant target segment, we launched the campaign in digital channels that allow the most accurate determination of the audience’s behavioral characteristics. Therefore, the campaign utilized the most popular messengers (Viber, Telegram) and social networks (Facebook, Instagram) among our audience.

Additionally, to build broader coverage and process existing audience inquiries, we utilized search advertising on Google Search and banner ads on the Google Display Network.

Moreover, based on data from mobile operators, we formed a database of Ukrainians currently in Germany and Poland, allowing us to build direct contact with this audience.

Finding missing persons is a complex and sensitive topic, so it was crucial to build trust in the organization among the target audience.

Oksana Romanyuk, Communications & Outreach Program Officer at ICMP

“The main challenges were the hyper-sensitivity of the topic and the meticulous selection of tools and communication channels that would be effective.”

Dmytro Kudinov, CEO of inseed.agency

“The issue of missing persons is very sensitive and painful for all parties involved, especially for people who have lost contact with their relatives. In Ukraine, many communities have self-organized on a volunteer basis to search for the missing. Assisting such communities became one of the vital tasks of this project. However, there’s a lot of fraud in this area. Unscrupulous people exploit others’ grief, extracting money for alleged information about missing relatives. Therefore, due to the low level of knowledge about the organization and its activities, we faced a rather cautious attitude from such groups.”

To increase awareness and trust in ICMP, we launched an informational campaign about the organization’s activities and history in the form of video ads on YouTube.

Communication Materials:

To achieve the campaign’s objectives, we prepared and adapted a series of communication materials that conveyed the campaign’s key messages.

Results:

The campaign lasted one month, during which we reached an overall coverage of 1.6 million people. We managed to attract nearly 12,000 users to the ICMP website, where they could fill out a form and report a missing person.

As a result, during the campaign period, we received a total of 145 reports of missing persons through the ICMP website. This means that 145 families received new hope for reunification with their loved ones.

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