The Campaign

Slurpee has always been a different kind of drink. It lets people pour, mix and fill their cup any way they like. However, 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 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 brand had ever thought to change before – the cup. 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.

Success of the Campaign

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 that month the previous year) following the promotion, cementing the brand’s position as Australia’s favourite frozen drink. Finally, more user-generated content was created in a single day, than in the brand’s history.

Describe how the campaign/entry was launched and executed across each channel in the order of implementation.

We began by asking 150,000 of our closest friends on Facebook one question, “If you could fill up any cup with Slurpee what would it be?”; it wasn’t long before they started seeing potential cups everywhere. The most original suggestions formed an instore, outdoor and print campaign, further inspiring people’s creativity in the lead up to the day. On September 21, 2011 mainstream and online media covered the event, which saw customers at all 650 stores nationwide drinking out of buckets, watering cans, dog bowls, helmets and prosthetic legs, all for the price of a regular Slurpee.