Young and Well CRC launches ‘Appreciate a Mate’ iPhone app for teens via DAN Sydney and Zuni

Digital Arts Network (DAN) Sydney has partnered with digital strategy agency, Zuni to deliver a project for Young and Well CRC, an international research centre that explores the role of technology in young people’s lives. 

Many people suffer low self-esteem and cyber-bullying during teen years, so the goal was to promote positive communication amongst young people using social media, the channel they’re most active in.

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The Appreciate a Mate iPhone app launches today (Friday 24th January) to coincide with National Compliments Day. The app is the second phase of the successful campaign, following the launch of a mobile and desktop enabled site www.appreciateamate.com in July 2013.

The app allows users to generate customisable highly crafted messages of appreciation and then pass them on via Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and SMS. Since launch, over 26,000 messages have been created using the site.  

The messages were developed in conjunction with young Australians aged 13-17 via a series of co-design workshops. 33 graphic artists from around the world then interpreted the messages in their unique way to create over 50 possible quotes users can choose from.

Says Bernadine Brewer, Zuni’s strategic planner: “What we love about this idea is that it works with young people’s current online habits and makes positive communication easy and fun.

“From research, we know that the building blocks of self-esteem and positive self-image are feeling accepted and valued by peers. Appreciate a Mate builds on that by providing young people with a tool that works for them and how they prefer to communicate. We have an opportunity to really influence a change in online behaviour and spread some positivity around the web.”

Appreciate a Mate is the second campaign from the Safe and Well Online project, a unique partnership research study between Zuni, University of South Australia, University of Western Sydney and Queensland University of Technology which aims to understand the impact and effectiveness of social marketing on the promotion of young people’s safety and wellbeing.

Appreciate A Mate is available to download now for free from the App Store. Android and desktop users can access the campaign on www.appreciateamate.com.