7-Eleven is coining a new language to bring out the fun and playfulness to launch its latest Slurpee flavours.
With its colourful, animated “Talk Slurpee to Mee” campaign, the convenience brand is leaning into the double “ee” in Slurpee, including when describing new summer flavours, like “watermelonee” frog water and “citrusee” yuzu lemonade.
According to Norman Hower, VP and GM of 7-Eleven Canada, it wants to remind and reinforce the feelings Canadians have when they have a Slurpee by tapping into a “cultural moment.”
The creative is led by Funday, a Calgary-based agency co-launched in the fall of 2020 by Jared Folkmann, a former VP of strategy at Critical Mass.
According to Folkmann – who is also the CCO and CD at the agency – not only are Slurpee drinkers really engaged in the brand, but when it tested the language, it witnessed “incredible unaided awareness around the ‘ee,'” which people instantly connected to the product.
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Folkmann tells strategy Slurpee is more than a drink – it’s an experience and it wanted to lean into creative positioning as iconic as the product itself.
“It’s not just how we talk about flavours but how we talk in general,” Folkmann says. “Using the ‘ee,’ we’ve created our own unique voice, a playful attitude.”
The goal of the campaign is to increase traffic and new delivery orders this summer, both from existing and new customers. The target customer, Folkmann says, expects 7-Eleven to routinely drop new flavours and frequently ask for a return to past ones.
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7-Eleven is targeting the 18- to 35-year-old set with a full 360-degree campaign, including TV, social, display and out-of-home.
“With broad awareness, we want to drive the overall feeling of the campaign, and to inspire you to go on a Slurpee run,” Folkmann says. “More tactical channels have creatively designed to remind and incent you with deals, and even weather-related triggers to get to a store.”
There’s even a TikTok challenge, a first for 7-Eleven, which involves influencer content encouraging people to create their own videos based around “going on a Slurpee run with mee.”
