| Title | THE POLITE TYPE |
| Brand | TIETOEVRY |
| Product/Service | IT SERVICES |
| Category |
G04. Social Behaviour |
|
Entrant
|
TBWA\HELSINKI, FINLAND
|
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Idea Creation
|
TBWA\HELSINKI, FINLAND
|
|
PR
|
TBWA\HELSINKI, FINLAND
|
|
Production
|
TBWA\HELSINKI, FINLAND
|
|
Production 2
|
GREAT APES Helsinki, FINLAND
|
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Production 3
|
TMI MELVAS TYPE DESIGN Vantaa, FINLAND
|
|
Additional Company
|
THE CHILDREN AND YOUTH FOUNDATION Helsinki, FINLAND
|
Credits
| Jyrki Poutanen |
TBWA\Helsinki |
Chief Creative Officer |
| Mikko Pietilä |
TBWA\Helsinki |
Executive Creative Director |
| Virpi Grönlund |
TBWA\Helsinki |
Client Service Director |
| Markus Nieminen |
TBWA\Helsinki |
Creative Director |
| Juhana Hokkanen |
TBWA\Helsinki |
Innovation Director |
| Joona Stedt |
TBWA\Helsinki |
Account Manager |
| Simone Bocedi |
TBWA\Helsinki |
Senior Content Strategist |
| Fredrik Stürmer |
TBWA\Helsinki |
Art Director |
| Maria Kuorikoski |
TBWA\Helsinki |
Senior Creative |
| Antti Halme |
TBWA\Helsinki |
Senior Creative |
| Iida Sarpaniemi |
TBWA\Helsinki |
Graphic Designer |
| Atso Wilén |
TBWA\Helsinki |
Graphic Designer |
| Henrik Storsjö |
TBWA\Helsinki |
Video Editor |
| Paula Sonne |
TBWA\Helsinki |
Communications Strategist |
| Saana Simander |
TBWA\Helsinki |
Junior Communications Specialist |
| Sara Pitzén |
TBWA\Helsinki |
Junior Communications Specialist |
| Katariina Ollari |
TBWA\Helsinki |
Content Producer |
| Eemeli Tani |
TBWA\Helsinki |
Performance & Analytics Manager |
| Juho Ojala |
TBWA\Helsinki |
Planner |
| Lisa Myllymäki |
TBWA\Helsinki |
Director |
| Tuukka Tikkanen |
TBWA\Helsinki |
Producer |
| Anton Tevajärvi |
TBWA\Helsinki |
Director Of Photography |
| Aki Karppinen |
TBWA\Helsinki |
Gaffer |
| Mikko Kuoppasalmi |
TBWA\Helsinki |
Editor |
| Anssi Mahlamäki |
TBWA\Helsinki |
Motion Designer |
| Ville-Matti Koskiniemi |
TBWA\Helsinki |
Sound Design |
| Petri Falkenberg |
Grade One |
Post Production |
| Aino Heiniö |
TBWA\Helsinki |
Costume Design |
| Donna Maimon |
TBWA\Helsinki |
Casting |
| Fanny Haga |
TBWA\Helsinki |
Photographer |
| Jonna Yletyinen |
TBWA\Helsinki |
Still Producer |
| Mika Melvas |
TMI Melvas Type Design |
Typeface Designer |
| Jonna Louvrier |
External Consultant |
Diversity and Inclusion Advisor |
| Michaela Moua |
External Consultant |
Diversity and Inclusion Advisor |
| Sara Salmani |
External Consultant, Inklusiiv |
Diversity and Inclusion Advisor |
| Anaka Kobzev |
TBWA Worldwide |
Global Head of Corporate Communications |
| Melissa Gotleib |
TBWA Worldwide |
Global Communications Associate |
| Doug Melville |
TBWA Worldwide |
Chief Diversity Officer, North America |
| Kia Haring |
TietoEVRY |
Head of Communications and Sustainablity |
| Hanne Haapoja |
TietoEVRY |
Head of Group Customer Insight |
| Mari Tuokko |
TietoEVRY |
Communications Lead, Finland |
| Reija Sihlman |
TietoEVRY |
Head of PR and Issues Management |
| Nelli Melin |
TietoEVRY |
Digital Content Manager |
| Annika Uusikari |
TietoEVRY |
Content Creator |
Why is this work relevant for Direct?
As a font that recognises and rewrites hate speech The Polite Type directly engages users to think about their online behaviour and the impact of cyberbullying. As a value-driven company TietoEVRY is committed to furthering trust and diversity and creating a brighter future through technology. Through this project, these values are made concrete and literally downloadable to anyone’s device.
Background
A third of all bullying now takes place online. As an IT company driven by Nordic values, TietoEVRY wanted to enter the public discussion on the downsides and possibilities of technology by proposing a solution for addressing cyberbullying.
Drawing from the company’s purpose of enabling a brighter future and an existing partnership with The Children and Youth Foundation, we created The Polite Type: an open-source font that promotes better online language use and empathy.
The project aimed to create a platform for public dialogue on digital responsibility with key decision-makers and public sector customers, while bringing in young people as active participants in tackling discriminatory language before it happens, through a positive change in attitudes.
The main KPIs outlined by the client were media coverage, reach and awareness, audience growth, engagement, conversion rate and referral traffic.
Describe the creative idea (30% of vote)
The Polite Type is a font that recognises and rewrites hate speech. By launching a self-moderating font, TietoEVRY wanted to create discussion about toxic online culture and cyberbullying, the social responsibility of tech companies in solving these issues and innovative ways companies could use tech to foster empathy online.
Together with The Children and Youth Foundation and diversity and inclusion experts, we identified offensive language related to online bullying and created a word library where each word was given a more inclusive alternative or blocked altogether. This word library was then coded into an Open Type font file, creating a custom font that gives its users direct feedback on their language use.
The Polite Type is a font that can be used on any platform. All the functionalities are incorporated inside the font itself, so no applications, keyboards or such have to be installed.
Describe the strategy (20% of vote)
With researchers from The University of Helsinki, we ran a corpus linguistic analysis of online content to identify vocabulary central to themes related to cyberbullying, such as body image, gender identity, sexuality and race. This was used as a basis for the word library incorporated within the font. In our workshops, we found that 65% of teenagers had experienced cyberbullying.
The key target audience for TietoEVRY are key decision-makers and public sector customers. Engaging the wider public on a social issue, would help us to position TietoEVRY through its values and contribute to addressing a pressing societal problem.
The project invited its target audience to to test the font and download it on their computers, join the discussion on cyberbullying and get involved in the initiative by developing the font further through improvements and new language versions.
Describe the execution (20% of vote)
The font and its source code were made freely downloadable on the campaign website. The download kit contained easy-to-use instructions for installing the font. All material was produced in a way that would encourage participation and invite anyone interested in the project to join in developing the Polite Type further.
Apart from a small social media and influencer campaign in Finland, The Polite Type was launched as a PR initiative in August 2020. A week of PR pushes kick started the campaign that has since spread through earned and social media.
The media kit contained a press release and a short, explanatory film on the project. In addition to larger PR pushes, 270 journalists were contacted personally with a tailored pitch.
List the results (30% of vote)
The campaign’s launch generated 637 earned media impressions, 221 of which were news articles. The campaign’s overall reach was 900,598,598, corresponding to an EAV of 8,497,769.31 €, indicative of high quality media hits.
Since August 2020, the font has been tested on the website 27,404 times and installed by 3,353 users in over a 100 countries.
90,5% of all website traffic and 94,2 % font downloads resulted from earned media content. 51% of site visitors tested the font. 6% of all site visitors and 12% of those who tested the font installed. Potential developers and global vendor partners have expressed interest towards The Polite Type.
An international school network now uses the font in its schools. There has been interest from new governmental and NGO partners in creating three new language versions of the font, with a German language version confirmed.
Please tell us about the social behaviour that inspired the work
Nearly a third of all bullying takes place online. Most of it is verbal. As young people are especially vulnerable, TietoEVRY’s partnership with The Children and Youth foundation was the perfect outlet for exploring digital solutions to cyberbullying.
Children and teenagers often have to navigate the online world by themselves and are expected to have mature coping skills to deal with bullying. We wanted to create a prototype for an in-built safety measure for online spaces that could help vulnerable groups such as these.
Online anonymity contributes to a lack of empathy in user’s behaviour, enabling rude behaviour and cyberbullying. Instead of moderating offensive language afterwards or bringing in extra applications, keyboards or such, we wanted to see if we could incorporate a moderating function inside the font file itself. This way, users can get direct feedback on their language as soon as they type something, before it’s published.