The Campaign

Branded Content is still a relatively untapped and under-utilised concept in Australia. Although successfully used by some, many Australian brands are yet to fully embrace the benefits of branded entertainment and in their minds there are many unanswered questions. Even though there are few restrictions in relation to branded content, the main obstacle comes from the reluctance to move away from traditional media solutions and a lack of understanding. They are yet to work out exactly how their brand fits into direct-to-web distribution and user-generated content.

Results

Slurpee has always been a different kind of drink. It lets people pour, mix and fill their cup any way they like. But in 2011 more and more copycat competitors entered the Australian frozen drink market. This included an aggressive advertising push from Coca-cola that threatened the Slurpee brand's number one position. We needed to make ourselves different again, so we changed the one thing we all had in common, the one thing no one had ever thought to change before; the cup. We seeded the idea prior to the event on facebook by asking 150,000 of our closest friends one question; 'If you could fill up any cup with Slurpee what would it be?' And it wasn't long before they started seeing potential cups everywhere. The best suggestions formed the outdoor campaign, further inspiring people's creativity in the lead up to the day. On September 21, 2011, we gave Australians a unique opportunity to engage with the brand in a completely different way. 'Bring Your Own Cup' Day, was the first time they weren't restricted to small, medium or large cups. In fact, they weren't restricted to a cup at all.

In this campaign every single piece of branded content was generated by the consumers, but it was all inspired by the Slurpee brand. The idea was to give consumers complete creative control over the product and as a result it was embraced by almost 100,000 people, with thousands uploading videos, sharing photos and posting comments of their experiences of BYO CUP DAY. On September 21, 2011, fans created not only their own cups, but also more user-generated branded content for Slurpee than ever before.

In a single day almost 100,000 'cups' were filled. That's nearly half a million litres of Slurpee. Over 350 stores were 'slurped' dry. The highest Slurpee sales in history were recorded, making it the most successful promotion to date. Achieving a 270% increase in unit sales for the same day the previous year. Sales have consistently increased month upon month (compared with the same month the previous year) following the promotion, cementing Slurpee's position as Australia's favourite frozen drink. Not to mention, more user-generated content was created in a single day, than in the brands history.