Project No Rest.
Client: The North Carolina Governor’s Crime Commission
Having previously teamed up on the Enough Domestic Violence campaign, the North Carolina Governor’s Crime Commission saw positive results and trusted us to help them tackle the issue of human trafficking. It was to be a two year campaign, and they were also partnering with the UNC Chapel Hill School of Social Work, so it offered us a chance to bring two organizations together and form a cohesive strategy that would work for a long time, across many mediums.
The process.
Upon meeting with both clients, we concluded the campaign needed to have two focuses, the primary focus being to help the general public identify human-trafficking, and the secondary focus being to help victims self-identify. Human-trafficking is diverse in application and is not as black and white as depicted in the movies. There are many subtle forms that both average people, as well as victims, may not recognize.
Each human trafficking campaign has its own personality and approach. For this one, we brought in Capitol Broadcasting’s documentary team, a group of extremely-experienced and talented professionals, to help us create highly polished videos that would bring this topic to life.
The deliverables.
1) Brand Identity
We came up with the name and logo inhouse, two things that would assist in our eventually winning an Emmy Award for the campaign. Everything from the typography to the colors were selected in ways that would draw attention and set us apart from similar campaigns.
2) Website Design
We built the Project No Rest website inhouse, utilizing our design team, copywriting team, and web development unit. It was created around SEO-implications, mobile-first responsive architecture, and design best practices. It housed videos, linked to resources, and gave both victims and citizens a clear path to report and address human trafficking problems.
3) Video Production
We worked with Capitol Broadcasting’s documentary team to script and produce the horrors of human trafficking as told through the lens of a variety of victims. We shot at numerous location across North Carolina, had special access and police support, and told stories other agencies may not have had access to tell.
Post-production, our experts gave these videos the editing and polish any Hollywood documentary would receive, further elevating and importance and trustability of this campaign.
4) Ad Campaign
We created a significantly detailed campaign and ran it on various platforms and mediums throughout the state. All digital ads linked to the website and all videos had clear call-to-actions and urls. We tracked and measured ad effectiveness and made pivots along the way to make sure the right messages targeted the right people.
In addition to visuals, we ran radio ads all across the state. The combination of digital, tv, and radio all hammering home a consistent, memorable message helped make Project No Rest a nearly universally-recognizable campaign in all of North Carolina.
The results.
The Project No Rest campaign is among our proudest successes. Year over year, calls from victims that were able to self-identify and seek help went up an astonishing 55%. Calls from the general public reporting human trafficking cases increased by 22%.
The project won a regional Emmy Award in February 2028 for Best Public Service Campaign.
