From pilot to success story: why Tulln chooses a city-wide rollout of Hoplr

_{image: Tulln an der Donau, Hauptplatz © C.Stadler/Bwag}

Community feeling is universal, but the way you facilitate it digitally requires a thoughtful approach. In the Austrian city of Tulln an der Donau, we recently proved that a small-scale pilot is the ideal starting point for a successful, city-wide rollout. The results demonstrate that Hoplr not only connects and activates but also scales seamlessly to an international context.

In this article, we take you through the journey of the municipality of Tulln an der Donau: from the pilot in one neighbourhood to a massive city-wide adoption.

The perfect match: Stadt des Miteinanders

Tulln an der Donau is a historic municipality in Lower Austria with approximately 17,000 inhabitants. What makes Tulln, also known as the Gartenstadt (City of Gardens) due to its many parks and gardens, so special is not just its location on the Danube, but primarily its progressive vision on living together.

Under the banner “Stadt des Miteinanders” (City of Togetherness), the policy has been strongly focusing on local community building for years. They strive for an inclusive city where residents support, know, and work with each other.

“True community spirit is characterized by a climate of good neighbourly relations: Good neighbours complement and support each other. They look out for one another and therefore recognize when someone is going through a difficult time. Then they check in, listen, and see if they can do anything to help.”

Within the ambitious vision of “Stadt des Miteinanders,” Tulln has already experimented intensively in recent years with various digital channels, including Facebook, WhatsApp, and local initiatives such as FragNebenan. Although these platforms generated a certain reach, the municipality ran into structural limits that hindered further growth.

The experiences from previous pilots brought several clear bottlenecks to light:

• Fragmentation and bubbles: Interaction often remained limited to small, closed circles (“us-knows-us”) or conversely diluted into large, impersonal groups.
• Lack of depth: It proved difficult to conduct a meaningful dialogue via fleeting social media, both among residents themselves and between the citizen and the city administration.
• Commercial communication: Local platforms often became more of a local advertising channel, rather than a place where neighbours can consult each other, ask questions, and organize exchanges.
• Privacy concerns: There was growing resistance against ‘Big Tech’. Both the administration and the citizens were looking for an alternative to commercial, American platforms driven by data sales.

The choice for Hoplr was therefore a conscious strategic move to address these specific pain points. The municipality sought an independent, safe, and European alternative. A platform that transcends fragmentation by connecting neighbours geographically, and that offers an ad-free environment where trust in each other and in the local government is central.

“Hoplr has proven to be a very suitable tool that fills a gap: it is a secure and closed platform for our citizens. With it, we can foster community spirit and thereby achieve a steering effect for the benefit of the community.”

Mayor Peter Eisenschenk

The test: ease of use for the administration

For the municipality itself, it was crucial that the platform not only works to connect citizens but can also be deployed efficiently for the administration. During a two-month pilot, the communication service of Tulln an der Donau extensively tested the Hoplr dashboard and all functionalities.

The feedback from the administration was clear. The platform was perceived as user-friendly and straightforward to use. Additionally, the tools for targeted communication with specific neighbourhoods were labeled as very valuable, especially in a municipality that focuses on engaging its citizens.

“From a communications perspective, it is very helpful to be able to target information to specific neighbourhoods – for example, regarding local road closures – while simultaneously having the option to address everyone, for example, when announcing an event.”

Julia Schwanzer, Public Relations of the City of Tulln

The pilot confirmed that Hoplr can seamlessly integrate into the daily operations of a government service outside the Benelux, without heavy learning curves.

Phase 1: the pilot in one neighbourhood

Technical tools are one thing, but do the residents embrace it? To test this, Hoplr was launched in one specific neighbourhood in Tulln. Residents were invited via our proven invitation letter, and the response exceeded expectations.

“It was important to us to emphasize the feeling of community right from the app’s launch. Therefore, we decided to encourage all citizens to use the app with a personal letter from the mayor – with great success.”

Stefanie Jirgal, operational manager of the initiative “Stadt des Miteinanders”

The results of the pilot in figures:

• Rapid adoption: Over 300 households signed up to participate in the test, which is no less than 22% of the total.
• High engagement: As many as 60% of users contributed actively. This was not limited to ‘lurking’: people posted messages, responded to each other, gave ‘likes’, and used the chat function.
• Impressive retention: Over the first four weeks of the pilot, we saw over 90% of users return to the app. Even after the initial novelty wore off, 60% continued to log in every week.
  

The voice of the citizen: safety and connection first

What the pilot in Tulln mainly proves is that the need for a safe, local network is cross-border. The user experiences are overwhelmingly positive: with an average recommendation score of 8.4 out of 10, 85% of surveyed residents believing Hoplr should also be launched in other neighbourhoods in Tulln, and barely any demand for technical support (1.4%), Hoplr passes the test in this new market with flying colors.

Residents embrace the platform not only for its ease of use but – as evidenced by the open feedback – explicitly view it as a ‘sensible European alternative’ to the large commercial players. This confirms that our core values regarding privacy and neighbourhood orientation also align perfectly internationally with what citizens and local governments are looking for today.

“I find it enormously important that this app exists! People need a sensible, European alternative to Facebook and Instagram.“

 Feedback from a resident of Tulln via the survey

Numbers, however, only tell half the story; the real gain lies in the connections made. The survey shows that as many as more than one in three users (36%) made contact via the app with neighbours they did not know before. Even more: these digital interactions are not limited to the screen but lead to real meetings and neighbourhood help. One resident even aptly described the app in the survey as:

“A gift that makes Tulln an even more livable city”.

 Feedback from a resident of Tulln via the survey

It shows that in Austria too, Hoplr is not merely a communication channel, but a catalyst that directly and measurably strengthens the social fabric of the neighbourhoods.

Phase 2: scaling up to a city-wide success

Bolstered by the positive feedback and an average recommendation score of 8.4 out of 10 from residents, the city decided to fully commit to a complete rollout. The results following the city-wide launch confirm that the model scales perfectly:

• Massive growth: In barely two weeks, 22% of all households in Tulln an der Donau joined, accounting for over 1,600 families.
• Unprecedented activity: A striking 94% of members are active on the platform weekly.

For the city, Hoplr is now an indispensable communication channel. City-wide messages reach an average of 2,410 views, giving the municipality a direct line to the population without relying on commercial algorithms.

A layered promotion strategy

The success in Tulln an der Donau is no coincidence, but the result of a well-thought-out communication strategy. To inform residents, the municipality utilized a broad mix of channels:

• Local anchoring: Publications in the city newspaper and articles on the official website.
• Press attention: Coverage in various local and regional newspapers.
• Visibility in the streets: The use of flyers and posters throughout the city.
• The personal ‘finishing touch’: Finally, every family in the municipality received a personal invitation letter in their mailbox. This physical letter remains a proven catalyst to guide residents from the mailbox to the digital neighbourhood.

Hoplr: a proven and scalable model for every city or municipality

The Tulln an der Donau case demonstrates that a pilot is the ideal way to lay the foundations for a successful modernization of your citizen communication. This is true not only in Belgium, the Netherlands, or Luxembourg, but now also in Austria.

With a proven methodology and hard numbers supporting its efficiency, the step towards a safe and social neighbourhood network is smaller than ever.