Barrett and Welsh created Missing for journalism non-profit New Canadian Media. This advertising campaign increases awareness of the inequities in Canadian journalism and raises funds to sustain its award-winning work to rebalance these inequities.

Canadian Association of Journalists studies show that white journalists account for 78% of Canadian newsrooms. Over 80% of newsrooms have no Latin, Middle Eastern or mixed-race journalists — they are missing. Usually, when journalists go missing, it is a sign of oppression. It merits an urgent response. 

We told the world that Canadian journalists were missing. And so are their stories. We explained how New Canadian Media corrects this diversity deficit with truly diverse, fact-based journalism that reflects all of Canada. New Canadian Media has published over 2,000 stories by immigrant and refugee journalists. These nuanced stories help us understand our diverse world better and more effectively serve the one-fifth of Canadians who are immigrants.

Our campaign dramatized how immigrant journalists are unfairly excluded from Canadian news reporting and appealed to donors’ sense of justice. Our creative stopped readers with its attention-grabbing headlines and intriguing text. It borrowed the visual language of a missing person poster to provoke an immediate response. Readers were encouraged to donate to New Canadian Media to ensure immigrant journalists are heard and immigrant stories are told.

2023 Marketing Awards: 1 Gold for Social Media, 3 Silvers (Digital, Direct and Integrated Campaign)

This phase of the campaign launched on Giving Tuesday and ran during the Giving Season (November 29th to December 31st, 2022). It provoked the desired response immediately: readers were concerned by the disappearance of a Canadian journalist, and engagement for subsequent posts which provided additional context was remarkably high. The 38 posts that ran during the campaign period attracted 28,154 views, and achieved an engagement rate high of 22.3% (media industry benchmarks range between 0.05. to 2.5%). Link clicks from all social media platforms hit 1,188. The email open rate (a standard success metric for a direct response campaign) was an incredible 54% vs the media sector benchmark of 22.1%. Not bad for a $0 campaign investment.