• Taken website home page
  • Taken website infographic
  • Taken website
  • Taken responsive mobile website
  • Taken memorial wall

Challenge

Taken is a television series focussing on solving the mysteries behind Canada’s missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. The series confronts, head-on, the search for answers, the clues that link these stories, and the hope of all Canadians to resolve this tragic reality for Indigenous women and girls in our nation. Eagle Vision, the producers of Taken, wanted to create an interactive digital media experience to:

  • help solve cases by connecting viewers to law enforcement;
  • build awareness of the television show and drive viewership; and
  • explore core issues and extend the stories online.

Solution

Eagle Vision brought in Tactica to prepare a digital media strategy for the Canadian Media Fund (CMF) and prepare a Bell Fund application to help finance the project. Once the project received the green light from funders Tactica developed the digital media experience in close consultation with Indigenous community members and television series producers.

Taken — About the series

The Taken website became the online hub for the documentary series, providing supplemental content, and will direct visitors to the other features and resources. The series content featured:

  • Series synopsis
  • Episode synopses
  • Detailed profiles of the women featured in each episode
  • Series trailer
  • Where to watch info: i.e. broadcast times
  • Additional content including extended video interviews
  • Media information (including links to promotional images, distribution and sales information)
  • Press articles about the documentary
  • Integration with social media properties

Taken But Not Forgotten tribute to MMIW

Taken But Not Forgotten is a tribute to the missing and murdered indigenous women and their families. Visitors are presented with almost 1000 names of women and can complete a traditional e-ceremony in commemoration.

By interacting with the dynamic memorial wall, visitors can better understand the scale of the MMIW issue. They can also search for a person by name or filter by location, status, age or date. To deepen the experience, users can click on individual names to learn more about the missing person and have an opportunity to contemplate her life. As a name is clicked, a selection of traditional medicine will appear and user can choose what type of ceremony they want to to perform. It will be up to the user to select the ceremony, medicine and music. Overlaying the video will be the murdered or missing person’s name, age, date last seen, province, and case status. The video plays for 60 seconds – during which time the user can send good energy, thoughts, or prayers to the woman and her family – before returning to the name wall.

Sharing the experience

To help raise awareness users can share the individual tribute video to Facebook and Twitter. The digital tribute video will display in the user’s Facebook timeline. The post will link back to the Taken website’s Taken But Not Forgotten wall.

Interactive infographic

The issues surrounding missing and murdered indigenous women are complex so it’s crucial that the facts are communicated with clarity and objectivity to resonate with a wide audience. Tactica collaborated with researchers in two Canadian universities to understand the statistics and find the compelling an important story they tell. The dynamic infographic shows the number of missing and murdered indigenous women compared to other ethnic groups across Canada and provincially.

Taken Blog

The Taken blog provides an ongoing information stream to build and engage the audience between episodes, seasons and beyond. The content serves to:

  1. generate interest and deepen understanding of the stories featured (i.e. posts written about cases prior to their episode air date);
  2. provide latest updates on cases featured in episodes (i.e. posts covering new case developments that post-date episode production);
  3. new cases (i.e. posts about recent disappearances and murders); and
  4. highlight related current issues and media events;(i.e. posts covering developments during the announced 3 year federal National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls)

Result

The Taken website successfully launched with the television series in fall 2016 on APTN and CBC. Taken immediately garnered a significant following resulting in a second and third season renewal for the television series. The digital media strategy also received funding for a significant second phase, launching in fall 2017, from CMF and Bell Fund. The website and online strategy as recognized with a 2017 Signature Award for Best Public Service Announcement from the Advertising Association of Winnipeg.

Client Profile

Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN)

APTN is the first and only national Aboriginal broadcaster in the world with programming by, for and about Aboriginal Peoples (First Nations, Inuit and Métis Peoples), to share with all Canadians as well as viewers around the world. Through documentaries, news magazines, dramas, entertainment specials, children’s series, cooking shows and education programs, APTN offers all Canadians a window into the remarkably diverse worlds of Indigenous Peoples in Canada and throughout the world.

Eagle Vision

Eagle Vision is one of Canada’s leading production companies and a Top 25 Member of the PLAYBACK Indie Production List. Founded in 2000, Eagle Vision produces exceptional, award-winning television and film content for the Canadian and international marketplace.

Partners Lisa Meeches (Ojibway, from Long Plain First Nation) and Kyle Irving have delivered more than 145 hours of content. They and their films have been the recipients of 5 Oscar Nominations (1 win), a Golden Globe win, 5 BAFTA nominations (1 win), 8 Gemini/CSA nominations (5 wins) and a Banff Rockie Award amongst several other prestigious awards and nominations.