Last weekend I was in New York City. Sunday I was hanging around mid-town and stumbled across the 5 Boro Bike Tour going up 6th avenue. First off seeing 30,000 people riding bikes through the city is always cool, but pedestrians beware :).
I was walking to the corner of 6th and 55th and started noticing something right away. New York isn't quiet and wall to wall people aren't quiet, but right away what filled the entire areas was the sound of the CommerceBank Cheer Squad. We are talking 12-15 people and a steel-drum/carribean sounding rock band.
They were absolutely incredible, the tour hadn't even started and they were cheering, screaming, laughing. The band was blaring Hot, Hot, Hot by Buster Poindexter and other reggae dance songs. The most incredible thing was it was only 10-15 employees. Now I don't know if or what they were paid to be there but it looked like they were having a great time. More importantly everyone in the area was having a great time with them probably 1000-2000 bikers laughing and cheering with them, and I found myself hanging around the area smiling and being a part of the "good vibe".
It's becoming incredibly hard to have your brand break through the noise these days and I'm always fascinated to see the result when a company tries to make splash. So, I was sitting back enjoying this and thinking to myself: 1) how cool is it that CommerceBank and their employees really got into the event like this (beyond just being the title sponsor) but 2) how much mileage are they going to get for this. And just as I was thinking that a group of bikers were walking their bikes behind me laughing and one of them said "Oh man, I've got to open an account with those guys, they like to party!"...
Well done CommerceBank... well done.
PS: normally I would have tried to talk to one of the employees but attempting to wade through the intersection to get to the other side wasn't even an option :)
A breath of fresh air. This bank offers dog biscuits for dogs its customers bring in with them. They are exceptionally friendly and helpful. I bank with them in NYC, not the customer service capital of the world, and I'm delighted by their attitude. Does anybody know anything about their recruiting practices?
Posted by: Jeffrey Eisenberg | May 15, 2007 at 09:03 AM
Great! To learn that they practice this kind of enthusiasm about their customers and business makes it much better. Reinforce your brand values across every customer (and their dog) touchpoints
Posted by: Brian Bond | May 15, 2007 at 03:20 PM