DALLAS -- 7-Eleven Inc. will be holding its usual birthday celebration on July 11 (7/11) and will say "thank you" to its customers with free Slurpee drinks at participating stores. This year's 7-Eleven Day marks the company's 81st birthday. Customers can pour their favorite Slurpee flavor in 7.11-oz. "Birthday" cups throughout the day, while cup supplies last.
And to celebrate National Hot Dog Month in July, participating 7-Eleven stores are offering a quarter-pound Big Bite hot dog and Big Gulp drink for $1.99 throughout the entire month.
And new for July is the first-ever Monster [image-nocss] Energy Slurpee drink, called Black Ice. Black Ice is a black-colored energy Slurpee drink. This is the first frozen Monster beverage and the first variety not sold in a can.
"In appreciation of our loyal customer base, we started giving away Slurpee drinks on our 75th birthday in 2002," said Jay Wilkins, 7-Eleven brand manager for Slurpee and Big Gulp fountain drinks. "We've been doing it ever since. Now July 11, or 7-Eleven Day, has become Customer Appreciation Day or try-your-favorite-Slurpee-on-us day."
Viral marketing through the newly redesigned www.slurpee.com website with its Slurpee Nation social network along with Slurpee street teams in select cities and store events across the U.S. play a big part in spreading the "7-Eleven Birthday/Customer Appreciation/Free Slurpee" message, the company said.
Kennewick, Wash., was recently crowned the new "Slurpee Capital of the World." On Free Slurpee Day, 7-Eleven franchisee Don Marriotto expects his store to be swamped. "Even though we will be giving away free Slurpee drinks on 7-Eleven Day, July 11 also will be our biggest Slurpee sales day of the year," he said. "We will have customers lined up outside waiting to get in the store and to the Slurpee machine to create their favorite frozen concoction."
Marriotto's No. 1 Slurpee-selling store offers 12 different flavors of the popular beverage, and he expects to have the local ABC-TV affiliate broadcasting from their store that morning.
The Dallas-based convenience retailer recently redesigned the Slurpee website to include interactive features, giving site visitors the opportunity to post messages and share photos and videos. The site was recently renamed Slurpee Nation to reflect the tone and feeling of the new design. The redesign included all new site architecture, navigation, creative content, artwork, animated elements and thematics.
The Integer Group, Dallas, part of the FreshWorks consortium of advertising and marketing agencies that handles the 7-Eleven account, won the assignment earlier this year and unveiled Slurpee Nation on April 1 to coincide with the promotion planned around the premiere of the Iron Man movie.
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