Combatting human trafficking

Anyone can become a victim of human trafficking, regardless of their age, race, gender, or nationality. Victims may be made to work at farms, factories, or strip clubs; forced into commercial sex; or abused in a home as a domestic servant. Although human trafficking is a hidden crime, it is not invisible. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) launched the Blue Campaign in 2010 to bring this crime out of the shadows. Through this national public awareness effort, federal agencies, first responders, health care providers, social welfare agencies, businesses, and members of the public learned how to both recognize the signs of trafficking and report it. As the campaign entered a new phase, DHS needed to know which campaign elements were and were not working. In 2016, DHS brought in our team to leverage a research-based, data-driven approach to increase the campaign’s efficacy.

Our team first developed a five-year communications strategy with detailed annual plans for social and digital media, paid advertising, special events, promotion of Spanish-language materials, and partnership outreach. The overarching objectives for each plan included:

From the onset of the contract, our team worked with DHS to identify campaign outputs, outcomes, and impact measurements. All plans and tactics, as well as the content and visuals of the static, animated, and video ads, were based on findings from multiple focus group sessions and survivor feedback.

An analysis of outcome indicators identified trends in paid and organic social media tactics, as well as content performance, guided content strategy, and direction, ensuring month-over-month and year-over-year performance and budget optimization. Through this approach, our team launched a keyword search advertising campaign that garnered nearly 500,000 impressions and a 4.27% clickthrough rate, driving 935 phone calls to the National Human Trafficking Hotline.

Our team also executed a seven-month lead generation newsletter subscription campaign, driving newsletter signups via Facebook and display advertising tactics. The campaign netted about 70,000,000 impressions and over 260,000 clicks, and collected over 46,000 email addresses at an efficient rate of $3.88 per email.

Recognizing the value strategic partners provided in reaching audiences not readily available to DHS, our team formed approximately 2,400 strategic stakeholder relationships. Our team then shifted its emphasis from acquiring new stakeholders to building deeper relationships with existing partners, engaging them in more meaningful collaborations (including Facebook Lives, event support and presentation, and input into campaign content). Through its strong relationships, our team maximized Blue Campaign’s reach and influence among the following audiences: