There over 1,600 missing person cold cases in Australia. Each year, during Missing Persons’ Week, the Australian Federal Police reach out to the public for help.
More people search on YouTube than on any other channel – except Google – and when they find what they’re looking for, they usually have to watch at least the first five seconds of an advertising pre-roll.
The Missing Person Pre-roll turned these unavoidable five seconds into the first ever geo-targeted search campaign for people last seen in the viewer’s area.
We turned the intro of a YouTube pre-roll into a series of 50 geo-targeted Missing Person’s ads for people last seen in the viewer’s area. (Something YouTube had never attempted before.)
In another YouTube first, we transformed the ‘SKIP’ button.
‘NO I HAVEN’T’ skipped the pre-roll as usual.
The Pre-Roll companion banner gave viewers another chance to see the missing even if they skipped the Pre-Roll.
‘YES I HAVE’ sent you to a site to share information with the Australian Federal Police.
50 Missing Person Pre-rolls resulted in:
•	1.2m impressions in five days
•	238 ‘Yes I Have’ clicks, each delivering new information on cold cases
•	Delivered closure for two families
•	One murder victim found, with the alleged whereabouts of another conclusively revealed.
Despite the tragic circumstances, the families of the two cold cases that were closed were afforded a level of closure that had been previously unavailable to them. In countless other cases, information led to more efficient use of police resources.