How can we empower drivers to identify and report suspected human trafficking?

U.S. Department of Transportation

Globally, an estimated 28 million people are subjected to human trafficking every year. The crime occurs in every U.S. state and territory, with traffickers taking advantage of our roadways to commit these heinous acts. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s main audience is Commercial Motor Vehicle (CMV) drivers who spend most of their time traveling on the very same highways. FMCSA’s inaugural human trafficking prevention campaign is to raise awareness of this crime and empower CMV drivers to use their eyes and ears to spot and report suspected human trafficking while they are on the road. DCG conducted research about CMV drivers and federal agency human trafficking prevention and awareness campaigns and consulted with human trafficking survivors to build a robust campaign that spoke directly to CMV drivers while being grounded in best practices and respectful language and imagery. Using brand development, paid media campaigns, earned media content creation, and materials development, DCG conceptualized and executed the “Your Roads, Their Freedom” campaign to increase awareness of human trafficking within the transportation industry and educate FMCSA’s audiences on how to report suspected instances of human trafficking.

Building on extensive research, message testing, and consultation with human trafficking survivors, DCG designed and implemented key messaging and imagery to inform:

• Paid media campaigns across various platforms, including Google, social media, audio ads, and out-of-home (OOH) advertising.
• A wide range of earned media products, including press releases, articles, and digital assets.
• Campaign collateral, such as English and Spanish pocket cards, posters, stickers, and promotional materials to disseminate information about human trafficking indicators and reporting methods.

These campaigns aimed to maximize reach and engagement with the transportation industry.

• Google search, display and social media campaigns generated just under 50 million impressions.
• Audio ads served over 1.29 billion impressions.
• OOH Ads generated 7.3 million impressions.

• Successfully launched the first FMCSA human trafficking prevention awareness campaign that educated CMV drivers on the indicators of and how to report suspected human trafficking.
• Paid media campaigns raised awareness of human trafficking by generating over 1 billion impressions across two campaigns.
• During the base year campaign 752,810 users engaged with the #YourRoadsTheirFreedom hashtag on Twitter. Secretary Buttigieg’s retweet of the campaign launch alone reached 532,000 users.
• The DOT press release announcing the launch of the campaign reached 758,000 users, and an article in the trade magazine Intelligent Transport reached 40,700 readers.
• The option period paid media campaign running from the end of December 2023 through Superbowl Sunday in February 2024 achieved an over 31,000% increase in web traffic compared to the month prior to the campaign (a two-month campaign comparison to one month prior to the campaign.)