Yellow Backie. An idea to spark some love between Amsterdam locals and its visitors, by embracing a famous Dutch custom: riding on the luggage rack of a friend’s bike.

All Amsterdammers with a bike were invited to swap their luggage rack for a free yellow one at a Yellow Bike store. By doing so, they invite friendly strangers to hop on and join them for a fun ride through their beloved city. It’s a bit like Couchsurfing, but on a bike.

We created an online video to explain the idea and a simple website (YellowBackie.org) where Amsterdammers could enroll to become a Backie-driver. After leaving a short motivation Amsterdammers were invited to swap their boring luggage rack for a free yellow one at a Yellow Bike store.

The idea got picked up by a lot of international media. Like major Dutch News stations (Radio, blogs, newspapers and TV), The Guardian, CNN, La Repubblica, USA Today, GOOD Magazine, National Geographic, CONTAGIOUS I/O, The Daily Mirror and many more. Reaching millions of people in over 95 different countries.

On social media Yellow Bike instantly became the most talked about bike rental service in the world with an insane amount of tweets, likes and shares.

But more importantly, hundreds of locals joined our mission. With a still growing number of Backie drivers (no 250+) offering their bike and experience to like-minded people from around the globe.

Yellow Backie narrows the gap between Amsterdam locals and tourist, and shows that a simple hack can change the way we look at a public issue.