WPP and SuperAwesome Announce Global Partnership to Ensure Privacy and Safety for Kids and Families Within Online Advertising

NEW YORK & LONDON--()--WPP (NYSE:WPP) and SuperAwesome, the leading kidtech platform, today announced a partnership to advance the standards of privacy for children in the global digital ecosystem.

Responding to ongoing shifts in children’s online consumption patterns, WPP is the first company among its peers to set a benchmark for the highest standards in digital privacy and safety for kids, working in partnership with SuperAwesome.

With children making up 40% of all new internet users1, the partnership seeks to address the imbalances of today’s internet infrastructure, which was designed for adults. The collaboration will further support brands on how to engage responsibly and in compliance with new global privacy laws passed by regulators – including COPPA (US), CCPA (California), GDPR-K (Europe) and Age Appropriate Design Code (UK) – which have been specifically designed to protect children online and ensure that only zero-data technology is used for digital engagement.

WPP agencies and clients will have access to the world-leading kidtech team at SuperAwesome and its kid-safe engagement platform and insights tools, including the company’s highly regarded KidAware certification programme that ensures online engagement complies with the latest privacy legislation and advertising standards. The partnership builds on existing controls GroupM has helped to establish that excludes or minimises the risk of exposure to unsuitable content for children in social media.

Children’s extensive use of technology is continuing to play a more important role in families, the channels they choose to engage with and the decisions they make. With almost half the world’s children now at home during the coronavirus pandemic and spending 50% more time on screens2, the need for safe and trusted digital experiences has never been more important.

Mark Read, CEO of WPP, said: “We’re already seeing big changes in family life as a result of the coronavirus pandemic and how we all interact with technology. WPP’s partnership with SuperAwesome is part of our commitment to ensure children’s safety while engaging with content online. It sets the first benchmark for digital privacy for children and provides our clients with access to industry-leading strategies and the latest privacy-by-design technology for the under-16 digital media space.”

Dylan Collins, CEO of SuperAwesome, said: “Kids’ opinions are increasingly important in the family and for society. Retail, personal care, entertainment and brands in many other verticals understand the influence youth have on their businesses, but have been struggling to understand how to engage responsibly and compliantly. It’s a business imperative to evolve how we interact with and support the under-16 audiences, especially as their digital consumption patterns will be forever changed by their COVID-19 experiences. We are proud to be working with WPP and their clients to proactively lead best practices for kid-safe digital engagement everywhere.”

About WPP

WPP is a creative transformation company. We use the power of creativity to build better futures for our people, clients and communities. For more information, visit www.wpp.com.

About SuperAwesome

SuperAwesome powers the children’s internet. The company has pioneered the ‘kidtech’ market: technology which delivers digital media functionality with a ‘zero-data’ design to ensure total safety for kids. SuperAwesome’s technology is used by hundreds of brands and content-owners, including LEGO, NBC Universal and Hasbro, to safely engage with over 500M kids every month.

SuperAwesome has offices in London, New York, LA and Chicago. It also holds investments in TotallyAwesome (Southeast Asia) and Kids Corp (Latam). Founded by serial entrepreneur Dylan Collins, the company is backed by investors including Microsoft’s M12 Ventures, Mayfair Equity Partners, Hoxton Ventures and Harbert European Growth.

For more information please visit @GoSuperAwesome on Twitter or www.superawesome.com.

1 PwC 2019 Kids Digital Media Report.
2 SuperAwesome’s survey of 6-16 year olds in the US and US, March 2020, asked 667 kids how much more time spent on a digital device now compared to before the coronavirus pandemic.

Contacts

Niken Wresniwiro, WPP
+44 (0)20 7282 4600 / +44 (0)7876 005 489
niken.wresniwiro@wpp.com

Contacts

Niken Wresniwiro, WPP
+44 (0)20 7282 4600 / +44 (0)7876 005 489
niken.wresniwiro@wpp.com