Oakland, California is the Bay Area's ‘other’ city. It lives in the shadow of its more famous, fog-shrouded neighbour and suffers from an image problem as the poor relation of San Francisco.In fact, Oakland is a great place to live and work. Its climate is rated the best in the U.S. (“the sunny side of the Bay”). When San Francisco is cold and dreary, Oakland can be sunny and mild. The rents are a steal, at 30% less than San Francisco. According to leading publications, Oakland is the #1 U.S. office market and the 12th best place to do business in the U.S.Our communication goal was to persuade young adults who live in San Francisco, as well as businesses who might consider relocating, that despite what Gertrude Stein said, there is a there there. The brand proposition we wanted to communicate was, “Oakland will surprise you.”This was a 24-hour turn-around job. The opportunity practically fell out of the sky. Ordinarily, we would establish far more ‘buttoned up’ communication goals relating to reach and frequency, awareness and persuasion, and so on.

In this case, our communication goal was…be bold, get people talking…and get the creative there on time. The idea was to take humorous ‘pot shots’ at San Francisco, to demonstrate ‘why Oakland will surprise you’, with short, funny headlines that work in a taxi top format, and post these ads on taxi fleets throughout San Francisco, for one month in the Summer of 2001.

Here are some of the taxi-top headlines that ran:I left my parka, in San Francisco.Is this cab bigger than your apartment?Tired of living where the sun don’t shine?Give yourself a raise. Move.Swap your Willie for a Jerry*. [*For non-Bay area residents, San Francisco’s major is Willie Brown and Oakland’s Jerry Brown].This campaign was so successful for no charge that the City of Oakland decided to pay to extend it. According to our client at the City Oakland, Samee Roberts, “it’s a campaign we would not have been able to afford on our own. The media exposure is worth millions.” Mediaedge:cia seized a fantastic, one-off, free media opportunity for its client and through clever adaptations of existing creative delivered a highly effective, much talked about media campaign. In May 2001 Eller Media contacted Mediaedge:cia to bemoan the dot-com implosion - it could hardly find a buyer for its taxi top ads. Most of the fleet was unsold. They might even give away the city’s run of taxi tops free of charge, if they could only find an advertiser who would supply the creative materials within the next few days, in time for posting. We told them, “give us an hour”. We had an idea. We ran over to Y&R and sold it to them. We saw the client the next day…and they bought it too. We called Eller, and said, we’re in, or rather we’re on top of your taxis in San Francisco, next month. Credit for this campaign is due, in equal measures to: -Eller Media (part of Clear Channel) for turning the liability of unsold media into an opportunityMediaedge:cia for seizing the opportunity, lining up a creative partner, taking it to the client and making the whole thing happenY&R for great creativeThe City of Oakland for taking a risk The short answer is that Mediaedge:cia achieved positive global attention for a ‘pocket change’ budget (free media and nominal creative costs). The longer answer: ultimately, Mediaedge:cia’s instincts and relationships made this a winner. When approached with this opportunity we understood immediately that we could adapt our City of Oakland print ads to a taxi top format. Because of our great relationships, we were Eller’s first and last call. But aside from instincts and relationships, this entry is a winner because…the campaign got attention, and it got people talkingit was funny, and it was truetaxi-tops provided the perfect environmentthe ampaign generated inquiries for both business and residential rentals and salesit received positive press attention around the world, far beyond our (or Oakland’s) wildest expectations.The publicity was quite unprecedented for a taxi-top campaign, including: -multiple stories and columns in local Bay Area broadcast and print mediapositive coverage in the advertising trade press (MediaWeek, Adweek)front page stories in some newspapers (e.g. the Los Angeles Times)carried on the Associated Press wire service throughout the U.S.broadcast in numerous news reports throughout the stateeven captured by a significant story in the Financial Times.

Mediaedge:cia seized a fantastic, one-off, free media opportunity for its client and through clever adaptations of existing creative delivered a highly effective, much talked about media campaign. In May 2001 Eller Media contacted Mediaedge:cia to bemoan the dot-com implosion - it could hardly find a buyer for its taxi top ads. Most of the fleet was unsold. They might even give away the city’s run of taxi tops free of charge, if they could only find an advertiser who would supply the creative materials within the next few days, in time for posting. We told them, “give us an hour”. We had an idea. We ran over to Y&R and sold it to them. We saw the client the next day…and they bought it too. We called Eller, and said, we’re in, or rather we’re on top of your taxis in San Francisco, next month. Credit for this campaign is due, in equal measures to: -Eller Media (part of Clear Channel) for turning the liability of unsold media into an opportunityMediaedge:cia for seizing the opportunity, lining up a creative partner, taking it to the client and making the whole thing happenY&R for great creativeThe City of Oakland for taking a risk