The campaign highlights 7-Eleven’s new Vanilla Flavor Slurpee. The company ran a similar campaign within Flixster earlier this month that awarded prizes to consumers who visit 7-Eleven stores and peel and win prizes.

“We had a couple objectives for our summer media plan,” said Danielle Ivey, senior manager of digital marketing at 7-Eleven. “First, it was to incent trial of the limited time Slurpee flavors, a second objective was to inform and educate on the Big Summer Sweeps program we were running in store and to drive traffic in store to participate.

“The third was to support 7-Eleven Day, 7-Eleven, Inc.’s 85th birthday when we offer a free 7.11 oz Slurpee drink,” she said. “Our strategies to achieve the objectives were to leverage consumer-interest sites to encourage excitement about the sweepstakes and talk to users on the go, closer to our stores.

“Flixster provided online and mobile opportunities as a consumer-interest partner – knowing that Slurpee and 7-Eleven guests also have a high affinity for movies, and summer is big for movies. Because 7-Eleven is usually not a planned-purchase destination, being aligned closely with mobile partners allows us to talk to guests on the go who have specific ‘need states’ that 7-Eleven can fulfill.”

Mobile promotion
Within the “theatres” tab on the Flixster app, users can click on a specific theater. From there, the details section features a “Find 7-Eleven Nearby” button.

When consumers tap on the button, an interstitial launches that highlights the ongoing 7-Eleven promotion.

“We know from extensive research that we’ve conducted that consumers are using Flixster as a starting-off point for planning their weekends and actually making the location-based plans on where and when they will be going to a movie,” said James Smith, senior vice president of revenue at Flixster, New York.

“And, by extension, all the other things surrounding a movie: shopping, eating and driving,” he said.

“Flixster’s app provides 7-Eleven with the opportunity to not only remind consumers of the value of a weekend 7-Eleven stop and provide awareness of the promotion of the 7-Eleven Day and summer promotion and sweeps, but also provides consumers with a custom ‘find the 7-Eleven location close to the theater they are considering, to encourage a stop and trial of new Slurpee flavors.”

Driving traffic
A campaign such as this is a great way for 7-Eleven to drive in-store traffic.

Consumers are constantly on-the-go. Therefore, integrating a button within the Flixster app helps those that are buying their movie tickets – no matter where they are.

“We want to provide consumers with movies discovery everywhere,” Mr. Smith said. “Increasingly, that discovery and decision process is happening on-the-go via smartphones and tablets.

“Mobile advertising for Flixster is exploding even though we also have a significant Web property – Rotten Tomatoes,” he said. “In fact, for our largest ad category – film advertising – mobile exceeded Web spending on our property this year.

“As the advertising marketplace sees stats like those mentioned above, it just makes sense that the platform becomes significant for marketers trying to reach consumers, when and where they make the purchase decision: on the weekends, and out with their smartphones.”

Final Take
Rimma Kats is associate editor on Mobile Commerce Daily, New York