How in the world did Argo’s little ‘navigation app that could’ sail above Google Maps, the world’s most downloaded navigational app, if only for a few days?
The secret lies with one of the youngest in a family of devoted boaters. Megan Foulk, daughter of Argo founder Jeff Foulk, wanted to help her dad get the word out about their family’s friendly marine navigation app. They were at the Chicago boat show, and even though Argo had a prime location, the string of attendees going by was as cold as … well, as Chicago in January.
So Megan did what any good teenaged daughter would do: took to TikTok. She reached out for help, recording the situation, setting it to some atmospheric music and asking, “Help blow up my dad’s boating app. He’s worked so hard on it and just wants people to try it out.”
The call for help was heard by hundreds of Instagram followers, hundreds of Facebook followers, and most of all by millions on TikTok.
“Megan was updating me, but I didn’t realize the real impact we were having.” Captain Jeff says, “Then she told me she had 1 million views, and I started paying attention. I was swamped on email and with comments in the app.” The video stands at over 23 million views now and counting.
After that, over 175,000 downloads happened in just a few days, propelling the app to the top in the app store.
“It was so much more than any of us expected.” said Jeff, who was blown away by the volume of helpful offers – downloads, partners, teens telling their parents about the app, even some offers of support. “It will take us a while to sort it all out, so we hope all our fans — new ones and old ones — will be patient while we do, but we are so very grateful for all the support, from so many directions.” Captain Jeff says. Megan captured his reaction to the outpouring on, of course, another TikTok.
