How do you introduce a new concept of convenience stores to the Israeli market, which is already saturated with?
Israelis lead a fast-paced lifestyle – everything must happen here and now, and even though the concept of “grab & go” stores fits that kind of lifestyle perfectly – Israelis have never seen it before.
So when 7-Eleven announced the launching of its brand in the country, our mission was to communicate the “7-Eleven experience” in a way that every Israeli could connect with, which according to the numbers and the two-week line that stretched outside the first shop – worked even better than expected.
The Challenge
In a sentence: make all the 470,000 residents of Tel-Aviv know that there is a new player in town.
Even before landing in Israel, 7-Eleven was already a well-known name within the local audience. But here’s the thing – the Israeli market of convenience stores is a saturated one. So much so that you can find a convenience store or a supermarket in every corner, especially in Tel Aviv which has its own internal scene of popular 24/7 stores. So how can you stand out above all the other competitors, and make the audience want to choose your brand over others?
This was the main question that guided us throughout the entire conceptualization process. And because trends in Israel always start in Tel Aviv, we knew we have to arouse the locals’ enthusiasm and excitement to make everyone to follow, and that every move we make within this campaign must be calculated to the very last detail.
The Solution:
The good thing about curiosity is that it builds expectation. And in order to arouse your audience’s sense of curiosty, you must cater to their deepest desires and emotions – which in many cases revolve around taste.
We wanted to make the audience crave 7-Eleven’s iconic food. That is why we decided to work in 3 different layers to achieve that –
Create a first encounter with the brand through a set of mind-tantalizing visuals of 7-Eleven’s products. Then, by showing real people enjoying the brand’s goodies. Finally, by telling everyone exactly where & when they can get that taste themselves, and what they can get if they come over to our store.
We therefore saw one goal in our eyes – the big launching event of the first store.
The Execution:
In today’s digital era everything goes through social media, but to make it big you must know how to combine the online world with the real world.
A few months before the event, we opened social media pages for 7-Eleven’s Israeli brand on all the ‘right’ platforms and posted original content, that introduced all the iconic products from the 7-Eleven brand, while adjusting the brand’s language and persona to fit the local social media culture. After the public started noticing our activity online, we managed to get the attention of the mainstream media, who in turn published countless pieces about 7-Eleven’s arrival to the Holy Land.
Suffice it to say that by that point everyone pretty much was talking about us…
After phase one was complete, we moved on to the second part of our plan, and put up a group of 11 social media lifestyle influencers, who got “a taste of what’s coming” and experienced some of the exciting products that were about to be available to the public – all in one goodie box. We designed the perfect box with items that were picked specifically to create anticipation within the audience, and the influencers sold it perfectly to their followers. By that time, the people couldn’t wait anymore for 7-Eleven to open the doors to their first location in Tel Aviv.
The last stage of our plan was also the most fun to put up – we created a challenge that started online and made its way into the real world on the big launch event. But we have to remember that the 7-Eleven brand is not just about the taste – it’s mostly about the experience, the feeling that you can count on the brand to have everything you need, whenever and wherever you need it. The challenge we devised was called “Take It to Eleven” – participants had to perform a certain task revolving around one of 7-Eleven’s iconic products, and complete it within 11 seconds.
Since not all of Tel Aviv could fit inside a 7-Eleven store, we live-streamed the entire launch event on 7-Eleven’s social media pages. And of course we didn’t forget the offline audience, who were able to tune in for a live radio show, produced in collaboration with Radio Tel Aviv and featuring some of Israel’s leading musical artists, right from 7-Eleven’s location at the Dizengoff Center in Tel Aviv.
The Results:
Our move had a major impact on social media – with over 2 million engagements on 7-Eleven’s pages, 1.7 influencer content views, and 12,000 people tuning in for our live-stream from the launching event.
The event was also covered by all major mainstream media channels, both online and offline, with 186 items on all channels (1.6$M exposure worth), and was even subject to jokes on popular entertainment TV show “Eretz Nehedereth” (Translation of ‘Great Country’).
But as far as social media engagement and online views go, the real success was noted in the real world – with over 1,000 people attending the launch event and 200 taking part in our “Take It to Eleven” challenge. An average of 1,356 customers a day and 10,000 cups of Slurpee sold within less than a month, and the long line of people that stretched outside the store even two weeks after the event.
Since its first launch, 7-Eleven has now opened its 10th location in Israel, with a never-ending demand for the brand to open up new locations around the country.
