Wheels "Memorial Madden Cruiser" at "One More Monday Night in Oakland" Event

Target Audience: Wheels serves the Northern California cities of Livermore, Dublin and Pleasanton. John Madden was a resident of Pleasanton from the time he began his coaching career with the Oakland Raiders in 1967 until he passed away in late 2021. This entry is targeted at those who respected John Madden as a Super Bowl winning football coach, as a pioneering broadcaster, as part of one of the best-selling video games of all time, or as just a Pleasanton resident who was extremely approachable when spotted at area restaurants, stores and youth sporting events. A secondary target for this entry was the thousands of people who attended a celebration of Mr. Madden's life on February 14, 2022, at the "One More Monday Night in Oakland" event at the Oakland Coliseum, the former home of the Raiders.

Strategy Objective:Rather than pay $6,000 for a limited use license for two photos, we reached out to see if the Raiders organization wanted to partner in the project. The next day, we received an email from Raiders VP of Media & Entertainment Brad Phinney. It contained high resolution images that the Raiders had used for their own tribute on their stadium's exterior giant video screen in Las Vegas. He thanked us for our project and offered the use of the images at no cost. Following that offer, our on-vehicle advertising contractor, Lamar Transit Advertising, offered to design, produce and install the wrap at no cost. At that point, our objective was to get the project done in time to be part of the "One More Monday Night in Oakland" John Madden tribute event on Monday February 14.

Situation Challenge: The Wheels Board of Directors asked staff to develop a tribute to honor Madden's legacy. During his 30-year broadcasting career, Madden was known for travelling from game to game on a custom outfitted bus known as the "Madden Cruiser". Staff decided a fitting tribute would be to design a "Memorial Madden Cruiser" and wrap one of our own buses. There were many challenges with this project. Foremost was to get the wrap designed and installed in a timely manner in order to participate in the "One More Monday Night in Oakland" event set to occur in six weeks. Second was the initial cost estimate. Getty Images had the licensing rights to the two images we wanted to use and they were asking $3,000 per image for 3 months of use. The cost for production/installation was quoted at $7,000.

Results Impact: The Wheels "Memorial Madden Cruiser" made its debut at the "One More Monday Night in Oakland: A Celebration of John Madden" event. Our bus was parked next to the original Madden Cruiser at the entrance to the event. As can be seen in the photos in this entry, the vehicle was extremely popular with Raider Nation, even more popular for photos than the original cruiser. The vehicle was also used as a backdrop for live reports by multiple San Francisco TV stations. The bus was also seen on news coverage of the event on almost all local stations, appeared in area newspaper coverage and was part of AP's coverage of the event, which was picked up nationwide. It also appeared on the Raider's website coverage of the event.

Why Submit: We were honored to be invited to participate in the "One More Monday Night in Oakland" event. The Memorial Madden Cruiser pays tribute to an American icon who happened to be a 55-year resident of our service area. The grand scale of the image of Mr. Madden's coaching in a snowstorm makes this a very visually appealing wrap. Raider's VP of Media & Entertainment Brad Phinney said "…this is a great thing you are doing." When we reached out to the Madden family for approval, John's son Mike responded "…it looks fantastic!" and "Thanks for taking this on…it'll be fun to see it around town." The bus has also appeared in the Dublin St. Patrick's Parade, the Livermore Rodeo Parade, was decorated for the Pleasanton Holiday Parade, and was prominently displayed at the Alameda County Fair.