Purpose-driven campaigns are often seen by the advertising industry as abstract and unlikely to drive behavioral change. But we’re here to change your mind with one strong counter example: Mediaplus’s Screen2Save campaign.
Developed in collaboration with Free2Move and Initiative Vermisste Kinder, Screen2Save is Germany’s first real-time media-based alert system for missing children. At the recent MMA SMARTIES Awards, the campaign won multiple accolades, including:
Europe Best in Show
Gold Winner in the Social Impact Marketing category
Two Silver Awards in the Brand Purpose/Activism and Real Time Marketing categories
While these awards are undoubtedly an accomplishment, the success of a campaign is measured by more than the number of awards it wins. True success comes from impact, which Screen2Save also crushed. The campaign achieved 137 million contacts and 1.5 million website views in just 2 weeks after its launch. Remarkable numbers for a purpose-driven campaign.
As global knowledge partner of the MMA SMARTIES, we’re poised to help the marketing industry understand the formula behind inspiring marketing. Let’s look at what makes Screen2Save such a hit.
Strategic thinking grounded in human Truth
It all starts with scary (but true) facts:
Every 2 minutes, a child is reported as missing in Europe
There were 18,100 reported cases in Germany alone in 2024
Due to strict regulations in Germany, it is not possible to use cell broadcast to trigger child abduction alert systems
Free2Move decided that something had to be done. In collaboration with Vermisste Kinder, Screen2Save was born.
The system allows parents to fill a form containing identifying information about their child.After police confirmation, an automatically generated alert is distributed across Free2Move car screens, social media, and digital out-of-home (DOOH) in areas around the child’s last known location
The impact? The first child was safely found just 4 hours after the missing report was published.
Key insight: Successful campaigns start with strong consumer understanding.
Key insight: Broad reach drives penetration: the main lever for brand growth.
Go big with your media strategy
The extraordinary impact of Screen2Save couldn’t be possible without a solid media strategy based on broad targeting behind its launch.
As Byron Sharp mentioned in his best-selling book, How Brands Grow, the role of advertising is to build mental availability so the brand comes to mind in key purchase (or, in this case, need) occasions. This is the strategy Screen2Save followed when designing their media mix.
The service was promoted through a cross-media campaign featuring traditional (TV, DOOH, print) and online channels (YouTube, social media, and streaming services) to maximize reach and frequency of exposure.
Strong creative contribution
Media strategy is not the only factor that leads to business impact. Media efforts can be wasted if they support weak creatives.
Based on our database of over 150 campaigns from our Global pre-testing partners, only 10% of them can be considered successful. Amongst the others, only 25% don’t meet their objectives because of poor media coverage and 65% of campaigns fail primarily because of creative issues.
How do we know if Screen2Save was airing effective advertising? We put our ACT Instant AI solution at work to answer this question.
By combining our experience in effectiveness research and Toluna’s Synthetic Personas , we obtained data-driven and actionable insights about the Screen2Save TV commercial in just a few clicks:
Overall results:
- The synthetic personas’ read matched real-world consumer response, ranking the Screen2Save commercial amongst the most effective ads in our database. The ad shows an above-average breakthrough power and an exceptional consumer response.
Breakthrough power:
- The initial highly emotional hook, showing a mother worried about her missing child, excels in capturing initial consumer focus and helps the ad cut through the clutter. Our personas ranked this commercial in the top 20% for attention.
- Branding is an area in which the creative could have been improved to drive even stronger campaign effectiveness. Current brand cues are limited to 1 brand audio mention within 30 seconds of the commercial and 1 visual cue in the finalframes. By leveraging multiple distinctive brand assets, creatives can ensure that the brand is top –of mind in key usage occasions.
Consumer response:
- The emotional engagement created by the ad is also beneficial in influencing behaviors. Personas ranked the ad in the top 20% for driving brand action and emotional connection with the brand, confirming the high quality of the creative storytelling.
Key insight: Strong creatives are the foundation for a successful campaign.
The power of ACT Instant AI
At Toluna, we believe that the most powerful campaigns are built on strong creatives. The numbers are clear: brands that air ads in the green area of Toluna’s Performance Grid can expect a +46% sales uplift and a +9% media investment saving compared to red (weak) ads.
In reality, however, brands are not always able to test their creatives prior to launch. This typically happens when:
Creatives are locked late, while media investment is already committed
Budgets are limited, forcing trade-offs between speed and confidence
Global consistency is required quickly, across multiple markets
The risk? Wasted media spend and weaker ROI.
ACT Instant AI addresses this need for fast and agile testing by providing brands with a full-scale approach to test, validate, and build confidence in their campaigns, all thanks to its:
Speed: results are available in 4 hours or less
Precision: up to 90% alignment with consumer thinking
Scale: available in 12+ countries globally
Holistic understanding: evaluate ads across 7 behavioural and attitudinal KPIs (on top of breakthrough and response potential)
Flexibility: choose between TV/streaming, social video (IG/FB), online video (YouTube) and TikTok/Reels creative testing
Agility: costs a fraction of a standard consumer-based advertising test
ACT Instant AI is powered by Toluna Synthetic Personas who see, feel and focus attention like a human audience. Each Persona is grounded on real consumer data from our 79M real global panelists and enriched with multiple layers of personality traits, emotions and behaviors to mimic a unique survey respondent.
ACT Instant AI helps you move faster, with confidence, using predictive insights grounded in consumer behavior.
