Small, but perfectly formed

Hi,

I take the casual car-pool into work. Here is how it works. The Bay Bridge connecting Oakland to San Francisco charges a $4 toll to drive across. However, if you have 3 riders in your car you get to cross for free, as well as using the much faster car-pool lanes. Anyone can go to one of a number of meeting points, and then jump into the car of someone who needs a couple more riders to qualify for the car-pool lane. People outside of San Francisco often find this a weird idea. Yes, you really do just get into the car of a complete stranger.

On the corner where everyone alights after having crossed the bridge, is a bank. Up till now, I had registered a bunch of plasma screens in its windows, but had never given whatever loans or offers displayed, or the bank overall, a second glance.

However, on Friday, I was totally stopped in my tracks. Some bright spark at the bank had changed all the screens to simply say "Thanks for sharing your ride". That was it. A tiny note, aimed perfectly at all the casual carpoolers, designed to make them feel good.

What a simple, yet smart thing to do. With just a couple strokes on a keyboard the bank, (New Resources Bank ) is able to ground itself into its local community, further exploit an asset they have invested in, and most importantly, send a resonant message to the 1000 or so business people communting in everyday. Sure, this is not going to win any big awards, or make or break the banks revenue for the year, but it made the bank visible, relevant and interesting to me. Use what you have, and be smart about it. I like that.

One final thing. The car pool ends at 10am, so from that time on, the screens just revert to their normal messaging, Smart use of day-parts as well.

Josh.