For years, 7-Eleven -- the company that invented the convenience store concept -- has been celebrating its “birthday” by throwing itself a party. Customers get a free Slurpee drink, 7-Eleven’s iconic frozen beverage. And everyone is happy.

So in 2013, the company asked us for a program that would take this annual free Slurpee celebration …and make it unforgettable.

Knowing the 18 to 34 target audience’s Fear of Missing Out (FOMO), we pledged to make 7-Eleven’s 86th birthday an epic bash. Beach parties and choice celebrities. Incessant social media chatter. And dancing. Lots of dancing. Specifically, the Slurpee Dance we created with YouTube sensation Nathan Barnatt got the party started.

America jumped into the celebration wholeheartedly. While Americans were sharing their Slurpee Dance moves and 7-Eleven branded content via multiple social channels, a gift-wrapped birthday package was created that traditional media couldn’t wait to open. And the ultimate… a camera-friendly Malibu Beach Party where Dancing with the Stars celebs showed off their Slurpee Dance moves and “Twilight” movie star Nikki Reed blew out the 86 candles on our 7-Eleven birthday cake.

Millions of fans joined the dance party: 7-Eleven Day 2013 saw 223 additional guests at every store than the prior year and 35% of those party goers added an additional purchase to their beloved free Slurpee drink.

Epic party. Tangible business impact. Mission accomplished.

The team created a dance that set the tone, the rhythm and the brand of the campaign. Then, we handed The Slurpee Dance to the bizarrely limber Nathan Barnatt to put into motion, activating Nathan’s huge YouTube following and challenging our fans, and millions overall, to show the world their own Slurpee moves.

We announced the 7-Eleven Day Dance Party and invited everyone in America to RSVP on Facebook. We blew out the content on 7-Eleven.com by making Nathan’s custom designed Slurpee Dance outfit available to anyone interested in creating the world’s largest dance troupe.

It culminated at Malibu Beach Party, home to the 7-Eleven Day Dance Party. Participants rubbed shoulders with Twilight’s Nikki Reed, The Hills’ Audrina Patridge and Dancing With the Stars’ Zendaya and Derek Hough. Chosen to thrill our tween and Millennial audience, these celebrities delivered a camera-friendly package for mainstream media.

7-Eleven Day 2013 was the most successful and epic 7-Eleven Day to date. Most importantly, the Dance Party helped drive hundreds more guests per store per day than the previous year and significantly boosted consumer purchases of additional store items that day other than the free Slurpee drink by an impressive 35% (hey, even frozen beverages need a dance partner). The prominently-branded dance video drew 15.8 million views, and we secured over 3,000 media placements, earning coverage in all top 50 markets, and resulting in 1.2 billion media impressions -- exceeding all set communications goals for the 2013 birthday celebration.

And while we didn’t want to make a big deal about it, 7-Eleven ended up crushing our competition at FourSquare check-ins with increases as high as 487%, while competitors BP, QT and Circle K dipped by as much as 91.3%. And that was worth a little epic Slurpee Victory Dance of our own.