Purple Power
There’s a new slim purple dude online — looking like a Slurpee spoon-straw — who is directing consumers in all kinds of directions: Got a code? Snag some slick gear. Unlock cool content. Score an iPod shuffle. Download a coupon.
Slim, as this lean straw is known, is part of a new interactive version of Slurpee.com, the slushy, fruity, carbonated frozen drinks from 7-Eleven Inc., that ties to a major on-the-cup promotion as well as a larger campaign, Now That’s Cold, that kicked off last month touting the cooling beverage and its new summer flavors.
The on-the-cup promo let’s consumers enter codes found on 40 million Slurpee cups at Slurpee.com to play the Slurp It Up, Spin the Cup instant-win game. Prizes include portable DVD players, MP3 players, shopping sprees, mobile games and ring tones, exclusive Slurpee T-shirts and free subscriptions to an AOL music Web site, via its marketing partnership with AOL. The site features interactive games, quizzes, premiums and prizes and downloadable coupons. New Slurpee flavors, like Purple S’creme, a purple cream soda-flavored drink, will be featured on the site during the summer. The promotion ends Jan. 31, 2007.
“The Web is where the Slurpee target lives and breathes and spends most of their time,” says Chereé Bowen, marketing manager for 7-Eleven “We felt that partnering with AOL was a perfect match to reach into the daily lives of our core consumer.”
A Slurpee drinking contest — who could drink the beverage the fastest — took place last month at the TransWorld Surf village at the U.S. Open of Surfing in Huntington Beach, CA.
As part of the marketing deal, players can earn “straw” points by sampling AOL and AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) and by contributing content to the Web site. The points can be redeemed for items in an online catalog. Visitors to the site, which launched last month, can shop for Slurpee T-shirts, answer questions in a BrainFreeze IQ test or print out buy-one-get-one free coupons.
7-Eleven also sponsors a custom version of AIM Fight (an online popularity contest), a “Slurpee-o-meter” weather graphic on AIM Today and AIM Interview, featuring chats with musical artists via instant messenger. Slim also appears on AIM.com as an animated Superbuddy icon and an AIM Expression. Dallas-based 7-Eleven also becomes a charter sponsor of AOL’s new AIM Pages, a social networking site.
Radio spots, billboards, online, in-store and ads on AOL support. Also last month, in celebration of 7-Eleven’s 79th birthday on July 11, the company served up 3 million free 7.11-ounce Slurpee drinks to customers as long as the cups lasted.
