A Web site for 7-Eleven’s favorite frozen carbonated beverage, www.slurpee.com, just got a whole lot cooler, the company said.
The redesigned site now includes interactive features, giving Slurpee lovers around the world a chance to post messages and share photos and videos featuring their favorite frozen beverage.
The site was renamed Slurpee Nation to reflect the tone and feel of the new design. “Slurpee drinkers see themselves as unapologetically nonconformists,” said Evan Brody, 7-Eleven marketing manager for Slurpee and fountain beverages. “They didn’t really have a place to congregate, and Slurpee Nation creates a virtual lounge or club where they share Slurpee experiences through message boards, photos and videos.”
The Dallas-based Integer Group, part of the FreshWorks consortium of advertising and marketing agencies that handles 7-Eleven’s account, helped redesign and unveil Slurpee Nation on April 1 to coincide with the promotion planned around the premiere of the “Iron Man” movie.
The redesign included new site architecture, navigation, creative content, artwork, animated elements and thematics.
"Slurpee Nation is the very essence of what Integer delivers to clients every day – creativity that lives at the intersection of branding and selling," said Bob Robinson, Integer executive creative director. "We took one of the world’s most iconic brands and created an online experience that engages and drives our teen target to respond."
A Slurpee Nation “manifesto” was created, which reads in part: Bound by our devotion to the world’s coolest drink, we are vast. Diverse. And as colorful as a rainbow Slurpee. … We extend our ice-cold hand with pride to all those who seek more from life. To that special band of individuals known as Slurpee Nation.
“We took all the content elements and ‘Slurpify-ed’ them,” said Patrick Kiker, Interactive account director who oversees the project at Integer. “Slurpee has a culture and personality all its own, and the Web site needed to reflect that unique attitude. I think the voice and spirit of Slurpee Nation turned out really cool.”
The overarching objective was to create engaging, interactive content to increase a visitor’s length of stay on the site. Some of the site’s hot spots include:
“Slurpee was born with an eclectic and strange personality,” Brody said. “If the soda fountain drink represented the clean-cut 1950s, then Slurpee was the rebellious and irreverent beverage of the psychedelic 1960s. Its fans have always been a bit different.”
In 2004, 7-Eleven introduced a web site devoted exclusively to the convenience leader’s most recognized brand. “The first website answered our needs at the time, but it essentially only allowed one-way conversations – us to Slurpee drinkers,” Brody said. “The new Slurpee Nation offers up a three-way conversation. We can tell Slurpee lovers about new flavors and fun stuff, they can tell us what they like and what they want, and the best part, Slurpee-lovers can talk to each other.”
