Nothing is truly lost, until it’s forgotten

Best Integrated Campaign

The campaign Bring Kids Back was targeted at three countries – Brazil, India, South Africa – which had indicated support for Russia, and had three objectives. It wanted to raise awareness of the illegal kidnapping of Ukrainian children by Russia, to influence public opinion and to mobilise support.

The first step was for agency FINN Partners to undertake research to understand current perceptions of the Russian war on Ukraine in those countries. This revealed high awareness that children were being abducted and significant frustration at government inaction.

A series of images, messages and story angles were developed to tell the stories of children and their families, and why Russia’s actions are crimes against humanity, across multiple channels, including print, broadcast media and social channels. The theme Nothing is truly lost, until it’s forgotten ran throughout.

Working within the cultural and political constraints of the countries, as well as being mindful of safeguarding children, a series of ads featuring the eyes of Ukrainian children who had been successfully returned from Russia. (The ads were deemed politically motivated by Meta and so were unable to display on any Meta platform.) Paid content was also used.

A petition on Change.org provided a call to action for people viewing the ads to show support. Op-eds from leading lawyers, child psychologists and humanitarian organisations were also drafted. Additionally, FINN hosted webinars with leading speakers on human rights alongside Andriy Yermak, former chief of staff for President Zelenskyy.

Action Days were held in Brasilia and Pretoria, and in India, due to high levels of pollution in Delhi, a school competition took place instead, engaging a younger audience and prompting media coverage. President Zelenskyy also gave an exclusive interview to Times of India.

By January 2025, the campaign had generated 537 items of media coverage, more than 264 million digital impressions and one million clicks on ads. More than 11,000 people signed the Change.org petition and 769 key stakeholders had engaged with the campaign.

The judges described this as an ‘excellent’ campaign, that ‘engaged stakeholders at the highest level on an extremely important issue and generated significant results and impact’. They were impressed at the use of ‘detailed data to inform and guide the campaign as well as next steps so that FINN continues to build on this’.

Agency: Finn Partners