Client: Safe & The City
Project Type: One-off PR Campaign
Focus: First App Launch for International Women’s Day 2018
Location: United Kingdom 🇬🇧
Brief
Safe & The City (also known as SATC), a London-based technology startup, launched its mobile app to combat sexual harassment and opportunistic crime in public spaces. Built by founder and CEO Jillian Kowalchuk, the app combined crowdsourced reports with police crime data to help users navigate their cities more safely. The launch was strategically timed to coincide with International Women’s Day 2018 and came on the heels of the global #MeToo and #TimesUp movements.
The challenge: to launch a brand-new app with zero brand recognition into an already noisy media cycle, and land coverage that spoke to both tech innovation and the urgent issue of gender-based violence.
Our Approach
We positioned Safe & The City at the intersection of personal safety, civic technology, and female empowerment.
- Anchored the campaign to International Women’s Day, tapping into the broader news agenda around women’s safety and gender equity.
- Emphasised Jillian’s powerful personal story as a founder who experienced harassment firsthand and channelled it into impact.
- Leveraged unique differentiators—not just another navigation app, but a preventative, data-driven tool developed in collaboration with police advisors.
- Used tangible product features (crowdsourced ratings, intersection alerts, 999 integration) to frame the app as both usable and transformative.
We also worked closely with Jillian to refine messaging that balanced empathy with data, and safety with agency—avoiding fear-mongering while underscoring the systemic nature of the problem.
Results
The campaign achieved impressive national and regional media coverage, positioning Safe & the City as a relevant and innovative response to street harassment:
National & Regional Media Coverage
- The Times
- The Guardian
- The Daily Mail
- Evening Standard
- The Herald Scotland
Broadcast & Audio
- Tech Talk Show interview featuring founder Jillian Kowalchuk
This strong media showing helped drive early downloads, brought attention to Safe & the City’s mission, and built credibility with both users and institutional partners, including early business adopters like Huckletree.
Why It Worked
By grounding the launch in real-world urgency and founder authenticity, we gave journalists a compelling story—one that connected personal safety, social good, and technology.
Key to the campaign’s success:
- Timely launch aligned with International Women’s Day and the ongoing #MeToo narrative.
- Founder-led storytelling built trust and emotional resonance.
- Clear product purpose (prevention, not just reaction) appealed to press and early adopters alike.
Safe & the City wasn’t just another safety app. It was a tool built by and for women, grounded in behavioural science and civic design. In subsequent years, SATC grew, improved its app and landed many more media hits, like TechCrunch and Forbes. Unfortunately, the app is not around anymore, but it certainly left its mark.
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