Many of us have a love/hate relationship with warmer weather.
While it’s great for weekend BBQs, catching a glowing tan and enjoying the great outdoors, it can also be a nuisance when it comes to a working week. Being stuck in a boiling hot car on the way to the office is not one of life’s most enjoyable things, that’s for sure.
Famous lemon-lime flavoured drinks brand 7UP recently felt the pain of Latin Americans suffering in the stifling heat. In response, the brand came up with a clever, and well positioned, experiential stunt that quenched the thirst of those in need.
Knowing that the weather is one of people’s most favoured topics of conversation, 7UP created a giant thermometer on top of a shipping container which tracked real-time heat related mentions on Twitter across several Latin American countries.
And the more people spoke about the heat, the higher the arrow would move on the scale. Simple.
Making it a particularly attention-grabbing stunt for passersby, once a certain threshold of heat-related tweets was reached, the container ‘opened’, revealing ice cold drinks for everyone to enjoy in the sunshine.
Through this direct experiential approach, 7UP successfully positioned itself as the ideal hot weather companion to hot weather, making an instant connection with consumers in the process.
By providing a fun challenge with a tantalising reward at the end, Pepsico-owned 7UP got consumers working together with one mutual aim: brand engagement and securing an ice-cold drink for themselves. This quirky play on traditional sampling served as a great way to initiate ongoing brand love, and will no doubt be fondly remembered on future sweltering days by those that took part.
While this was a great face-to-face activation, by integrating the use of social media into the activation 7UP also managed to get consumers online involved too, allowing the campaign to spread through the internet and reach an even wider audience.
The lengths people in the sun are willing to go to get an ice-cold drink sure is impressive. Take a look at when beachgoers had to destroy a giant ice cube in an experiential stunt created by Coca-Cola. There were some dedicated people on the beach that day!