For fans worldwide climbing the walls in anticipation of Columbia Pictures' May 4 worldwide release of Spider-Man(TM) 3, 7-Eleven® stores will offer an opportunity to get their hands on Spider- Man branded premiums one month before the film's release.
Throughout April, more than 5,800 participating 7-Eleven stores in the U.S. and Canada, along with thousands of 7-Eleven stores in six other countries around the world, are promoting the highly-anticipated Spider-Man 3. The company's domestic plans include store events, online contests, radio advertising and one-of-a-kind collectible Slurpee cups. Internationally, 7- Eleven stores in Denmark, Hong Kong, southern China, Taiwan, the Philippines and Sweden will promote the movie in April by tying contests to their proprietary products.
At the center of the U.S. and Canadian 7-Eleven Spider-Man 3 promotion are three "jump-out-at-you" 3D Slurpee® beverage cups and an online contest on the
Slurpee.com web site, with prizes including three trips to walk the black carpet at the U.S. premiere of Spider-Man 3 in New York City April 30.
7-Eleven, in collaboration with Columbia Pictures and FreshWorks®, developed three lenticular Slurpee cups that appear to feature moving animated characters. On one, Spider-Man changes from red to black as he appears to swing away from the cup, while the others feature villainous characters in action -- with memorable lenticular images of Sandman and Venom. Topping each collectible cup is a silver, domed lid with a web design. 7-Eleven stores' featured Slurpee flavor for April is Black Cherry Lemonade.
"This is one of the coolest cups we have ever designed, perfect for a perennially cool product like Slurpee," said Rita Bargerhuff, 7-Eleven Senior Marketing Director. "We worked very closely with Columbia Pictures to create lenticular illustrations that would make great collectibles for any Spider-Man or Slurpee fan. I expect the cups will sell quickly."
At 7-Eleven's Slurpee.com web site, visitors can register to play "Spin the Web" for a chance to win one of three trips to see the U.S. premiere of the film. The trip packages provided by 7-Eleven include airfare, lodging, ground transportation, and tickets for two to the Spider-Man 3 premiere. Other "Spin the Web" prizes are 30 of the soon-to-be-released Spider-Man 3 video games by Activision and 300 Spider-Man 2.1 special edition DVDs, which include never-released action from Spider-Man 2.
"Our customers rank movies and sports as their top entertainment choices, but beyond that, Spider-Man is a great fit for core customers of our iconic Slurpee brand, whose ages are between 12 and 28," said Bargerhuff. "What is even more exciting is the 7-Eleven promotion is going around the world - the first time we've done anything like this internationally."
Joanne Dinwoodie, 7-Eleven's director of global marketing and merchandising, said, "Nearly 6,000 other 7-Eleven stores around the world will be among the first retail outlets offering customers Spider-Man 3 visuals and prizes, each in their own way. For example, 7-Eleven stores in Sweden will give away Spider-Man 3 computer games and merchandise, mobile phones and other prizes tied to a promotion of their frozen yogurt brand."
"This is the first time 7-Eleven has activated a movie in so many markets and we are thrilled to be a part of this global promotion," said Mary Goss Robino, Columbia Tristar Marketing Group's Senior Vice President of Global Marketing Partnerships.