DALLAS -- 7-Eleven Inc. and FreshWorks, an Omnicom agency marketing and advertising consortium, captured the Best Overall Pro Award for the 2007 "Simpsons Movie Kwik-E-Mart Experience" during the PROMO magazine's PRO Awards event recognizing outstanding promotion marketing campaigns, held at the Museum of Science & Industry in Chicago.
The experiential campaign called attention to 7-Eleven stores' fresh foods and proprietary beverages by promoting Twentieth Century Fox's The Simpsons Movie. A dozen 7-Eleven stores in North America were transformed [image-nocss] overnight into Kwik-E-Marts, the fictional convenience store made famous in The Simpsons TV show, which went to the big screen in July 2007. (Click here for previous CSP Daily News coverage.)
"This campaign was nothing short of phenomenal for our stores and customers," said 7-Eleven president and CEO Joe DePinto. "We hit the sweet spot with consumers, some of whom traveled across state lines to join the fun at 7-Eleven-turned-Kwik-E-Mart stores. It's a prime example of how 7-Eleven understands its customer and their passion points. Through our marketing, store transformation and products, we delivered in a way that delighted them. I am very proud of the great work done by our marketing team, store operators and franchisees."
It was a reverse product-placement play. 7-Eleven contracted with suppliers to create products found only in the cartoon program. They wanted to bring the show to life and let customers actually purchase fictional food, like Squishee-named Slurpee drinks, KrustyO's cereal, Buzz Cola and Sprinklicious donuts, of which 1 million were sold that month.
Before winning the crystal 2008 PRO Award, FreshWorks and 7-Eleven took the top spot in five other categories:
Best Use of Event Marketing using More than Five Venues Best Sponsorship or Tie-In Campaign Best Campaign Generating Brand Awareness and Trial Recruitment Best Idea or Concept Best Retail/Co-Marketing Campaign Best Use of P-O-P
"We are very honored to be recognized with FreshWorks as the company that created the most ingenious idea in 2007," said Rita Bargerhuff (pictured), 7-Eleven's marketing vice president. "The campaign took months and months of preparation, but it was worth it. We entertained the public, attracted new customers and increased sales of fresh food, which was our goal."
Other trophies and honors for 7-Eleven's and FreshWorks' month-long Simpsons promotion include Effies, Reggies, Addys and Golden Lion Promo awards from Cannes, France.
Members help make our journalism possible. Become a CSP member today and unlock exclusive benefits, including unlimited access to all of our content. Sign up here.