Sidekick Studios was set up for one very simple reason. We want to find creative ways of using the internet to solve social problems.

Loneliness, truancy, binge drinking, political breakdown, community collapse, worklessness, rising healthcare costs, social divisions, it’s not like there is a shortage of problems to solve. We’re not pessimists though. We don’t subscribe to the theory that our generation has had it particularly bad. In fact, we think we’re kind of lucky. Our parents dealt with worse and easier stuff. The thing is, they never had the internet. And the internet is ace.

The fried chicken grime videos are fun, and brands do cool things, but the best bits of the internet are about helping people freecycle, bookcross, turn the tables on politicians, learn and teach one another, and fight filth with forks and flowers.

So that’s what we do. The grown-up word is social innovation. We just want to make society work that little bit better and earn a living along the way. We do it in our particular way. By taking social problems, and throwing the internet at it. What new behaviours can be facilitated? What intractable problems can be solved? What people can we get to fall in love?

We’re not a consultancy; we make things. We don’t do the tried and tested; we like making angels in virgin snow. We’re not interested in the technology; we’re interested in what it can do. We work for brands; we work in the public sector. We’re not defined by a channel; we’re defined by our mission to use the internet to create socially useful products and services. Let’s see how we go.