How the International Canoe Federation used Ripl
Who: John Gregory | Strategy & Digital Communications Consultant | OpenCity, Inc.
Why Did ICF Need Ripl?
John was on the lookout for a small business marketing tool that could compose something quickly and professionally after seeing an image with a quote overlay. Most of the International Canoe Federation’s tweets had been text and when you’re tweeting at a rapid speed, like John, it can be difficult to add meaningful pictures because of the speed you’re trying to tweet.
A month before discovering Ripl, John attended a Google Summit Workshop that profiled the tool VideoScribe. VideoScribe had great potential, but John found it difficult to use and too time-consuming. That’s when he stumbled across Ripl in a tweet.
Ripl could be the answer to standing out on social media, he thought, while creating something fast and professional all on his iPhone 6.
How Did Ripl Help?
The International Canoe Federation (ICF) used Ripl to amplify their social media posts and add a new dimension to promoting the use of canoe slalom related hashtags.
As a consultant for ICF, John was responsible for building up the online presence of canoe slalom, covering the ICF World Cup and Olympic disciplines in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. They wanted to build on the momentum gained during John’s live commentary of the London Olympics and continue building awareness of Canoe Slalom with the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Key Benefits and Results
John used Ripl primarily to promote the use of the hashtags #ICFSlalom & #ICFSprint. Content of his 10-second animations ranged from counting down to Rio, congratulating winners of each race and promoting upcoming blog posts.
Twitter remained their core platform, but they also shared to Instagram and Facebook. ICF saw their following grow from 8k to 13.5k followers on Twitter.
John created a total of 31 Ripl animations resulting in 1,918 total engagements. The most obvious advantages from John’s perspective: ease of use and saving time.
Beyond being free, John “liked Ripl’s extreme ease of use and ability to very easily absorb into what I was already doing. Seamless.” He could create the animations in Rio using only his phone and a WiFi connection, in less than one minute.
ICF saw a positive response from followers commenting on the Ripl animations and the more John used Ripl, the more he liked the tool and all the possibilities Ripl could offer.
Although the Canoeing season has ended until Spring 2017, John plans to use Ripl extensively again next year.
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