Ruptly’s approach to covering the 'Yellow Vest' demonstrations was to enable audiences to make their own opinion. By capturing and publishing the events as they unfolded in real time, Ruptly teams allowed audiences to experience each moment as if there themselves.
Ruptly streamed footage live on multiple social media platforms simultaneously, providing media organisations with a comprehensive account of events unfolding on the streets of Paris and other cities. Ruptly’s live streams were its most popular content on its social media platforms for 13 weeks in a row. The coverage attracted over 10 million views across the YouTube and Facebook pages of Ruptly and its clients based in 24 countries.
Dinara Toktosunova, CEO of Ruptly said: “Social Media plays an integral role in journalism today. This award is testament to how our news teams fully embrace and effectively integrate social media in their work to deliver content that is timely, impactful and captivating.”
Challenged with delivering the best quality content to clients, Ruptly teams worked in extreme conditions, often caught in tear gas or pelted with paint, with one crew member being struck by a rubber bullet. Ruptly, nevertheless, maintained an on-the-ground presence of highly mobile teams who were able to relocate at a moment's notice as the events progressed.
Katerina Alexandridi, Head of Planning said: “We are proud that we were among the first to realize this was going to be more than a one-off, and that we needed not just to be there, but to be live. The main challenge was to never underestimate the amount of people needed on the ground as the weeks went by in order to, on the one hand, not miss any significant action and, on the other hand, keep our crews as safe as possible during protests that left many injured.”
The Shorty Awards, now in its 11th year, were the first awards to honour social media. The Shorty’s remains the most prominent awards of its kind, continuing to recognise the most influential, popular, and culturally relevant brands, organisations, agencies, campaigns and influencers across social media.
The 11th Annual Shorty Award winners were announced in Adweek and will be celebrated at the awards ceremony on 5 May in New York City.