Bullying no longer lives only in classrooms, in hallways and on school buses. It’s online and far more toxic. Our solution to battle it online was to create the first anti-bullying emoji. Because of its universal code, the emoji can be used across all social media platforms where bullying takes place, without the need to download apps or keyboards.

Bullying is a universal childhood epidemic. So we created a tool for kids to stop bullying: an emoji. Knowing that emojis are the fastest-growing language across mobile devices and social media, we thought that the best way to implement change among young adults was to give them a tool they could use anywhere.

For the first time ever, Silicon Valley came together to launch our emoji, the first anti-bullying emoji—reported to be the first emoji tied to a social cause*—and spread the word about the powerful symbol. Our emoji is now in the native keyboard of 240 million smartphones in the world, giving kids a powerful tool to help stop online bullying.

*http://stimulantonline.ca/2015/10/23/emoji-for-an-anti-bullying-cause

To reach 19 million teens ages 11 to 15,* the campaign generated 2 billion+ impressions across their favorite social networks and mobile devices to raise awareness about the emoji.

From October 2015 to today, the campaign generated:

• Over 1.2 billion impressions

• 23.5M views of our films

• 265.9K engagements with the custom keyboard app and Kik stickers

• 2.3M impressions through other social

When it comes to adoption and intent, a Facebook Nielsen Brand Effect study revealed familiarity with the campaign and understanding of how to use the emoji doubled among those ages 11 to 15 and young adults ages 18 to 20.** And our most important result was that teens who saw our campaign were “definitely” more likely to support a victim or stand up to a bully the next time they witnessed bullying.

*Pew Research, Teens, Social Media & Technology Overview 2015 Report

**Facebook, Nielsen Brand Effect Study February, 2016

Our strategy was to use the “I Am a Witness” platform to create a program uniting youth to flex their collective muscle and empowering them to take action against bullying. The key elements of this program were the following:

? Develop a creative campaign to make youth feel big, courageous and part of a powerful movement. We wanted them to see themselves united as agents of change.

? Use creativity, design and technology to give witnesses effective tools for action.

? Make all of it live on mobile, since the 19 million youth between the ages of 11 and 15* consume most of their information on mobile devices.

*Pew Research, Teens, Social Media & Technology Overview 2015

Bullying is a universal childhood epidemic. But if a witness speaks up when they see bullying, 60 percent of the time bullying stops within 10 seconds. So we, along with the Ad Council, created a tool for kids to stop the bullying: an emoji. Knowing that emojis are the fastest-growing language across mobile devices and social media, we also knew that the best way to effect change among youth was to give them a tool they could use anywhere.

For the first time ever, Silicon Valley came together to launch our emoji, the first anti-bullying emoji—reported to be the first emoji tied to a social cause*—and spread the word about the powerful symbol. Our emoji is now in the native keyboard of 240 million smartphones in the world, giving kids a powerful tool to help stop online bullying.

*http://stimulantonline.ca/2015/10/23/emoji-for-an-anti-bullying-cause