Europol wins Digital Communication Award for EU Most Wanted postcards

Catching Europe’s most wanted fugitives by sending them cheeky postcards. This innovative way of successfully involving the general public in criminal investigations was the main reason for awarding Europol with the Digital Communication Award for best campaign.

Europol was shortlisted three times in several categories with two different campaigns: twice for our EU Most Wanted campaign from last year, where national police authorities from 21 EU Member States sent a summer postcard to one of their most wanted criminals on the run, telling them they want them back. Thanks to this approach, three of the featured criminals were arrested. We were shortlisted a third time with our crowdsourcing campaign “Stop Child Abuse – Trace an Object” in which some background objects from child sexual abuse images are published on a dedicated website. The idea is to ask the general public to help identify and locate the objects shown, which will allow law enforcement to narrow the search for the victim and the offender. So far, over 22 000 tips have been received and seven children and one offender have been identified.

The Digital Communications Awards, hosted by Quadriga University of Applied Sciences, honour industry-leading online communications from across Europe. The awards were issued last night during a ceremony in Berlin, after a long day of pitching the shortlisted campaigns to a professional jury. We are honoured to have been awarded for Campaign of The Year (small budget), ahead of very strong competitors.