700,000 kids are abused in the United States every year. Millions suffer from neglect. Colorado has a plan to change that. The state created a confidential child-welfare tipline and asked Heinrich to drive awareness. Yeah, but. Coloradans don’t put their noses in their neighbors' business. And Heinrich’s research proved that people scroll right past sad stories. So we had to stop abuse and neglect without talking about abuse and neglect. Even trickier, Colorado is diverse. (Just look around!) Our messaging had to speak to all ages and economic classes in Spanish and English at the same time.
One cold February Sunday, a diverse group of Coloradans pulled up to a small local school. They thought they were attending a focus group on parenting. But once they were inside, we asked them to play a series of children’s games. Each game included powerful questions about personal values and hidden beliefs. We filmed the emotional reactions as these brave people realized their private concerns were shared by all parents, everywhere.
Video exceeded viewing benchmarks by
We exceeded click-through goals by
We had the message, now we needed the media. Because we had to reach English and Spanish speakers across a broad geography, including two Native American reservations. And there was an and. Every ad had to do dual duty, pointing people to our website for information and to our hotline to report a concern. Our media team responded with an all-digital, all-the-time plan that put users one tap away from either goal. Tactics got served cross-device in display, video, audio, search and social.
Our strategy did more than just drive calls to the hotline. More than just inspire people to visit the website. And way more than just spreading scare tactics. #CO4Kids became a rallying cry for everyone with a soul. We proved it doesn’t just take a village to raise a child, it takes a whole state.
