BBH Creates a Conversation for Missing People

In a world of iPhones, apps and other technological distractions, it can be easy to forget the value of a simple phone call. For the families of runaway youths and estranged relatives, the importance of knowing that their loved ones are safe is crucial and charity Missing People helps to make that happen by acting as a lifeline. Today, on International Missing Children’s Day, the charity launches a film through BBH London to promote its new contact number, and it’s an interactive 90-second wonder that will practically raise awareness of the charity’s work.

“We were briefed directly by the charity and the team here at BBH,” say creative team Matthew Tassell and Emma Castagno, “it was a unique and very moving session where we got under the skin of the issue as well as the incredible work the charity undertakes.”

Opening on an on-screen message to “please turn your phone ON”, the commercial, shot by Somesuch&Co’s Ben Strebel, follows a troubled missing boy into a street phone box where he’s intent on making the all-important call home but can’t seem to do it, having worked himself up over the task. After a few seconds he gathers himself and makes another call at which point the film freezes and the interactive element kicks in, urging viewers to dial up a number to listen in on the conversation.

“That’s where the innovation came in,” continue Tassell and Castagno, “the eureka moment was inside the problem: to get 116000 into people’s phones. Our answer was a product demonstration couched inside a socially realist drama.”

Those who do call in are immersed in the commercial’s story and are able to really get to grips with the charity’s work. However, those who choose not to pick up the phone are forced to sit in silence as the muted, frozen film continues until the call is over.

“Given the complexity of the issue, we felt the most important thing for both the missing and those left behind was sensitivity and integrity toward the subject matter. We were also conscious we needed to grab the audience and do something so charged that they couldn’t forget it.”

The 90-second film was launched at a Downing Street reception hosted by Home Secretary Theresa May on Wednesday and a 60-second version will run in cinemas and on MTV from today. There will also be a 30-second non-interactive cut-down and interactive posters aligned with the phone call aspect of the original film.

BBH previously launched a powerful film for children’s charity Barnardos towards the end of last year and clearly has a creative edge for communicating why these organisations exist. By innovating the way that the Missing People film is viewed, the message comes through that much stronger to raise awareness of the charity’s work.

“Our director Ben Strebel is brilliant with performances” add the pair, “he and his casting director found an incredible talent in Dan Parr who blew us all away in his casting session. We needed to build character, create empathy and compel an audience to pick up the phone all in under a minute.  A tall order but Dan, not even out of drama school, struck a chord immediately.”

The scenes in the commercial may be a typical case scenario that the charity often has to deal with, but when it comes to missing people, there really is no set formula to go by. As the creatives explain: “We created a backstory for the film and we were keen to make sure our characters were credible and not cardboard cut-out stereotypes or people you couldn’t relate to. This really could happen to anyone.”

The film ends with the boy’s message being delivered to his mother after it emerges that his second call was to Missing People and the campaign successfully highlights one of the many success cases as a result of the charity’s work.