On TV, “The Simpsons” Kwik-E-Mart convenience store may be best known for salmonella and spotty police protection. But the integrated marketing campaign that transformed twelve 7-Eleven stores into real-life Kwik-E-Marts won the Super Reggie award from the Promotion Marketing Association last night for best overall promotion of 2007.
Promotional agency FreshWorks shared in the award for the campaign that marked last summer’s launch of “The Simpsons Movie” from Fox Studios and Gracie Films. The campaign introduced Simpsons-related elements in all relevant parts of the store, including changing 7-Eleven’s trademark Slurpee beverages to “Squishees” and putting “Sprinklicious Donuts” in the bakery cases. Manufacturing partners were called on to generate familiar Simpsons products such as Buzz Cola, Krusty O’s cereal and even Radioactive Man comic books.
While only a dozen stores in North America got the full Kwik-E-Mart treatment during the promotion, all 7-Eleven stores got the merchandise and the Simpsons-themed end caps for the promotion.
“The intent was to create a lot of buzz and then drive customers to 7-Elevens across the country where the same products would be available for purchase,” 7-Eleven marketing vice president Rita Bargerhuff said at the PMA conference Tuesday. “It was a very, very well-covered PR event, and the payout was as strong as we had anticipated.”
Asked if the company had seen any resistance from 7-Eleven franchisees who didn’t want to replace their traditional branding for a promotion, Bargerhuff admitted that the marketing team initially “had a lot of sell-in to do” to persuade both corporate management and franchisees that this promotion wouldn’t hurt the 7-Eleven brand.
“Ultimately, everybody focused on what would delight the customer,” she said. “Once we got through that sell-in process, which took six to seven months, we wound up having franchisees clamoring for us to make over their stores.”
For the “Simpsons Kwik-E-Mart” campaign, FreshWorks and 7-Eleven received gold Reggies for first place in both the “Local regional market—Budgets over $1 million” category and the “Experiential marketing-Budget over $1 million” division. The duo also took a silver Reggie in the “Multi-partner promotion—Three or more partners” category.”
To mark the 25th year of the PMA’s Reggie Awards, the Super Reggie Award given to 7-Eleven and FreshWorks was a 72-lb. Antique cash register.
“FreshWorks and 7-Eleven delivered the largest-scale promotion to hit the convenience retail channel, and the first-ever real-life Simpsons experience,” said PMA President Bonnie Carlson in a statement. “It is fitting that they got to take home the 72-lb. cash register as a Super Reggie Award for a campaign that made the cash registers ring.”
Gold, silver and bronze winners in all 16 Reggie categories were as follows:
National Consumer – Budget over $5 million
Gold: The Starter Wife Campaign (Client: USA Network; Agency: In-House)
Silver: McDonald’s Shrek (Client: McDonald’s; Agency: Arc Worldwide)
Bronze: Bee Movie Theatrical Program (Client: DreamWorks Animation; Agency: In-House)
National Consumer – Budget between $1 million and $5 million
Gold: Welcome to Stacy’s (Client: Stacy’s Pita Chip Company; Agency: TracyLocke)
Silver: The Sopranos A&E Connection Game (Client: A&E; Agency: Civic Entertainment Group)
Bronze: My GRAMMY Moment (Client: The Recording Academy; Agency: In-House)
National Consumer – Budget under $1 million
Gold: The Sopranos A&E Connection (Client: A&E Television Network; Agency: Civic Entertainment Group)
Silver: HOP Across America (Client:Hooked On Phonics; Agency: Civic Entertainment Group and Engage Marketing)
Bronze: Silk Soymilk “Green Caps for Green Energy” (Client: WhiteWave Foods; Agency: The Integer Group)
Bronze: “Night At The Museum” TREX TREK (Client: Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment; Agency: The Borden Agency)
Local, Regional Market – Budget over $1 million
Gold: 7-Eleven/ Simpsons and Kwik-E-Mart (Client: 7-Eleven; Agency: FreshWorks)
Silver: Maxwell House Brew Some Good (Client: Maxwell House; Agency: OgilvyAction)
Bronze: Charmin NYC Restroom Experience (Client: Procter & Gamble;
Agency: Gigunda Group, Inc.)
Local, Regional Market – Budget under $1 million
Gold: Spider-Man Week in NYC (Client: Columbia Tristar Marketing Group; Agency: NYC & Company)
Silver: Free Food on Your Phone! (Client: Hardee’s; Agency: CellFire, Inc.)
Bronze: Inspire Change (Client: Seeds of Change; Agency: Alcone Marketing Group)
Multi-Partner Promotion – three or more partners (No budgetary parameters)
Gold: The world is going yellow in celebration of the Simpsons movie (Client: 20th Century Fox; Agency: In-House)
Silver: 7-Eleven/ Simpsons and Kwik-E-Mart (Client: 7-Eleven Agency: FreshWorks)
Bronze: The Starter Wife multi-partner campaign (Client: USA Network;
Agency: In-House)
Business-to-Business (includes trade promotion) (No budgetary parameters)
Gold: Gatorade/ All-Stars VPI Program (Client: The Gatorade Company; Agency: TPN)
Silver: Chase the Extraordinary (Client: InterContinental Hotels Group/Hotel Management Group; Agency: US Concepts)
Bronze: Girls Gone Wired (B2B) (Client: Oxygen Media; Agency: GEM Group, Inc.)
Multi-cultural/Ethnic (No budgetary parameters)
Gold: Scott Dichonario (Client: Kimberly-Clark; Agency: Mass Hispanic Marketing)
Silver: WonkaArte “Dia de los Muertos” Program (Client: Wonka;
Agency: Bromley Communications)
Bronze: Herbal Essences RBD (Client: Procter & Gamble; Agency: Leo Burnett, Arc Worldwide & SMG)
Digital (No budgetary parameters)
Gold: The Sopranos A&E Connection (Client: A&E Television Network; Agency: Civic Entertainment Group)
Silver: My GRAMMY Moment (Client: The Recording Company; Agency: In-House)
Bronze: Degree / 24 (Client: Twentieth Century Fox Licensing & Merchandising; Agency: MindShare)
Cause/Community Outreach (No Budgetary parameters)
Gold: Tide CleanStart Mobile Laundromat (Client: Procter & Gamble; Agency: Gigunda Group, Inc.)
Silver: Yahoo! Be A Better Planet (Client: Yahoo!; Agency: In-House)
Bronze: The National 9/11 Memorial & Museum at the World Trade Center 9/11 Tribute Exhibition (Client: National 9/11 Memorial & Museum; Agency: Octagon, Jack Morton & Weber Shandwick PR)
Experiential Marketing – Budget under $1 million
Gold: Godiva “Decadence Goes Mobile” (Client: Godiva Chocolatier; Agency: Eastwest Marketing Group)
Silver: SPIDER-MAN WEEK IN NYC (Client: Columbia Tristar Marketing Group; Agency: NYC & Company)
Bronze: Take Off and Tune In (Client: A&E Television Network; Agency: Civic Entertainment Group)
Experiential Marketing – Budget over $1 million
Gold: 7-Eleven/ Simpsons and Kwik-E-Mart (Client: 7-Eleven; Agency: FreshWorks)
Silver: Sony (Alpha) DSLR Tour (Client: Sony; Agency: Gigunda Group, Inc.)
Bronze: World Vision Experience: Aids (Client: World Vision Organization; Agency: The Brand Experience)
Shopper Marketing (No budgetary parameters)
Gold: It’s a “Tween Thing” at Toys “R” Us (Client: Disney Consumer Products;
Agency: In-House)
Silver: Sony HD Test Drive (Client: Sony; Agency: PowerPact, LLC)
Bronze: Bounty Re-launch (Client: Procter & Gamble; Agency: The Integer Group)
Age Specific (No budgetary parameters)
Gold: Rescuing Recess (Client: Cartoon Network; Agency: Arc Worldwide)
Gold: McDonald’s Shrek (Client: McDonald’s; Agency: Arc Worldwide)
Silver: Hannah Montana MyConcert Memory Book Presented by HP (Client: Disney Online/Hollywood Records/HP; Agency: Disney Online In-House)
Bronze: AT&T World’s Loudest Pep Rally (Client: AT&T; Agency: The Marketing Arm)
Small Budget – Budget less than $100,000
Gold: Early Times Reel in a Million (Client: Brown Forman; Agency: PriceWeber)
Silver: Bon Appetite and Bon Voyage; Lactalis USA, the Official Cheese of Ratatouille (Client: Lactalis, USA; Agency: Eric Mower and Associates)
Bronze: Kellogg’s Pop-tarts Splitz Create Your Own Webisode (Client: Cartoon Network; Agency: In-House)
New Product Launch (No budgetary parameters)
Gold: GlaxoSmithKline alli Product Launch (Client: GlaxoSmithKline; Agency: Draftfcb Chicago)
Silver: alli U – Hispanic Grass Roots Initiative (Client: GlaxoSmithKline; Agency: Casanova Pendrill)
Bronze: Volkswagen Touareg 2 Launch: The Bourne Ultimatum (Client: Volkswagen; Agency: In-House)
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