Results and Effectiveness

In a single day almost 100,000 ‘cups’ were filled (nearly 500,000 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 and achieving a 270% increase in unit sales for the same day the previous year. Sales have consistently increased each month (compared with that month the previous year) following the promotion, cementing Slurpee’s position as Australia’s favourite frozen drink. Finally, more user-generated content was created in one day, than in the brand’s history.

Creative Execution

For one day anyone could bring anything they liked to their local 7-Eleven and fill it with Slurpee. ‘Bring Your Own Cup’ Day, was the first time people weren’t restricted to small, medium or large cups. In fact, they weren’t restricted to a cup at all. 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 instore, outdoor and print advertising, 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 people all over the country drinking out of buckets, watering cans, dog bowls and prosthetic legs, all for the price of a regular Slurpee.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

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, including the 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. Traditionally, the brand has belonged to its hard-core drinkers so we needed an idea as irreverent as our drinkers. This act would simultaneously differentiate us from copycat products and other bottled drinks, and give drinkers a genuine opportunity to indulge their fantasies. In the process we would remind consumers why they fell in love with Slurpee in the first place – the unique and personal hands-on experience.