Results and Effectiveness

Coverage was provided by both Channel 7 and 9’s evening news reports, along with Fox FM, and Gold FM during the day. This PR reached 817,107 Melbournians and another 91,552 people across digital media. Almost 1,000 images were entered, generating 21,376 digital interactions that drove 4,104 new likes to the Facebook page. Given the investment of only $2,000, we generated over $134,000 worth of media & PR value (19,143% ROI!) and inspired Ellen’s Oscar selfie to attempt breaking our record. Most importantly, despite the weather, we had turned the Slurpee sales decline around and saved the promotion.

Creative Execution

With seven days to plan, and less than $2,000 budget, we rolled up our sleeves and became part of the execution ourselves through actual physical presence and a lot of negotiating. On Saturday 21st December, 2013, we took over Melbourne’s city centre, Federation Square, with outdoor Slurpee machines, branded banners and agency staff dressed in Slurpee gear, giving out prizes and distributing Slurpees. To build the crowd the event was promoted via Facebook posts, live radio interviews and press releases. We arranged for the Fox FM team to attend and excite the crowd, and borrowed Melbourne’s highest profile digital outdoor site; both at no charge. The day culminated in our World Record Selfie. We then used a professional videographer to extend the campaign by capturing the event and creating long-form content conveying all the hype being generated, published across all Slurpee owned assets.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

What do you do when your most important campaign of the year is failing because of bad weather and you have no budget left to work with? 7-Eleven’s Summer promotion, The Slurpee Selfie, offered prizes if you shared images of you sucking down a Slurpee. But sales in Melbourne were well down YOY due to unseasonably low temperatures. Despite starting the month with a 31, then 36 degree day the next two weeks saw tops of just above 20 degrees – hardly Slurpee weather. We needed to save the promotion, and fast! Our insight was born from our target audience – freewheeling teenagers - and their burning desire to keep up with the ‘edited life highlights’ that fill their social feeds. Our strategy was to give them the ammunition they needed by making them part of a history making event they were guaranteed to share: Introducing The world’s biggest selfie!