Last Thursday morning, Jon Dodd and his team at the Atlantic Shark Institute (ASI) were filled with anxious excitement as their new license plate was about to go live on both the RI DMV site as well as their own, www.atlanticsharkinstitute.org. They had reason to be. The launch took almost three years to come to fruition, and only a week before they read some sobering news: “There was an article that said the Boston Bruins plate for Rhode Island drivers took nine years to reach the 600-plate minimum,” Dodd said. The ASI license plate team of Jon Dodd, Peter Dodd, and Tomas Koeck were a little surprised. “We’ve played hockey our entire lives, love the Bruins, and hearing that it took nine years for them to get to 600 was a little disconcerting,” added Peter Dodd.
However, they also had some degree of confidence. They had done a lot of customer research, listened to the feedback and comments from their 10,000+ followers, asked folks to vote for various styles and designs, and made sure every step was carefully thought out. “We managed everything from the best day of the week to launch, the marketing, the process description, linkages between sites, sharing of data with the DMV, and more,” said Koeck, ASI’s webmaster and technologist.
Immediately after the site went live on Thursday morning, Abigail Dodd was the first person in RI to order the new ASI plate. Not long after, her father Jon joined her and bought the second. “We laughed and said, ‘At least we know two people want them,’” recounted Dodd.
If the team still harbored concerns, they were quickly dispelled. Order after order began pouring into ASI’s mailbox shortly after launch Thursday morning, and by 5:30 PM, less than 10 hours after its release, the Atlantic Shark Institute had met the required minimum of 600 passenger plates to go to print.
“We are so appreciative and still stunned at the support, the interest, and the number of people who are helping to fund our work,” Dodd said.
As of Monday morning, ASI was closing in on an astonishing 2,800 total plates sold, and they are showing no signs of slowing down. Passenger plates have already surpassed the minimum requirement and can go to print with almost 2,200 ordered. Combination plates are just 150 shy of the same goal, while Commercial plates have another 450 to go.
“This plate will be available forever and we can’t wait to see the first one on the road here in RI,” Dodd said. “I’m going to be saying ‘thank you’ to folks all over RI for a long time.”
To order your plate and help fund ASI’s important shark research, go to www.atlanticsharkinstitute.org and order yours today.
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