Media Smart appoints youth specialist Livity to help equip young people with media literacy skills

18 May 2020: Media Smart, UK advertising’s award-winning education non-profit, has appointed creative business and youth specialists Livity following a competitive five-way pitch. The appointment will see Livity lead on long-term strategic and creative activity with Media Smart, including its next ‘industry supporter’ backed campaign with video sharing social network, TikTok, due to launch this September.

Media Smart’s recent initiatives have included resources around the Boys’ Biggest Conversation (on male body image and mental wellbeing), Creating An Ad (as part of ITV & Veg Power’s Eat Them To Defeat Them Campaign in 2020), Influencer Marketing, Piracy and Managing On-line Adverts.

Media Smart aims to ensure that every child in the UK, aged 7 to 16, can confidently navigate the media they consume including being able to identify, interpret and critically evaluate all forms of advertising. As part of this mission, it provides free educational resources and parent & guardian guides on subjects like social media, digital advertising, body image and influencer marketing which are delivered in the classroom, assembly, youth club or at home. Dan Clays, CEO of OMG UK joined as Chair in 2021 and it recently won Gold in the International CSR Excellence Awards.

Media Smart’s aims and aspirations are closely aligned to those of Livity, whose clients include: Google, Foot Locker, Nike, Depop.  The agency specialises in adding value by working hand-in-hand with young people and brands to build the future better, through enabling brands to do work they may never have never done before, to earn their place in youth culture, and make meaningful contributions on the world’s biggest issues. All of Livity’s work is created in collaboration with its unique UK-wide youth network of more than 6000 young people.

Rachel Barber-Mack, Director of Media Smart, said: “I’ve been a huge fan of Livity for years and am delighted that we can partner with them in our next exciting chapter. 2020 saw Media Smart win a number of awards, reach record numbers of young people during the pandemic and build our industry supporter base with fantastic platforms like TikTok and Twitch. It’s absolutely the right time for us to challenge, innovate and to ensure we listen to our youth audience and give them the media, advertising and digital literacy skills that they want – not what we think they need. We can’t wait to launch our new educational campaign with Livity and TikTok later in the year.”

Alex Goat, CEO at Livity, said: “Media Smart’s importance in the world young people are growing up is undeniable. We are incredibly excited to be bringing our shared skills and passions together to scale impact by building tools and campaigns which are youth-led and industry and educator-informed, that young people, parents and teachers all love. We cannot wait to partner with Rachel and the Media Smart team to drive forward the advertising and media literacy agenda.”