How do you respond when a U.S. president turns your signature product into a partisan punch line? You wait, patiently, for the right moment. Then you jump.During last year’s U.S. election campaign, President Obama accused his Republican rivals of sitting around "sipping on a Slurpee" rather than fighting the recession. He used the line 35 times. 7-Eleven remained quiet, determined to keep out of the partisan mud. But in a post-election press conference, we saw our chance. When asked if he would hold a "Slurpee Summit" for his first meeting with new Republicans, President Obama responded, “Slurpees are delicious drinks.” Within 24 hours, we had hijacked the story with a new bipartisan Slurpee flavor called "Purple for the People" and a 14-city, cross-country Slurpee Unity Tour headed to the White House for a "Slurpee Summit." The fun didn’t stop there. We declared Black Friday, America’s biggest shopping day, “Purple Friday” and offered all Americans a free Slurpee.By the end of the three-week campaign, 7-Eleven had won in a landslide, with 2.8 million Facebook fans, nearly 2,000 media stories worth $5.5 million in ad value, and a bump in traffic and sales during the historically slow winter months.

11/3 - Seeding of Story: Hours after the President’s remarks, we gave USA Today an exclusive on the “Slurpee Unity Tour” – a 3000-mile trek to the White House.11/5 - Custom Flavour/Slurpee Unity Tour Kick Off: Within 48 hours, five Slurpee trucks left Dallas as attendees tasted the tour’s signature drink, the new "Purple for the People" Slurpee, a symbolic mix of conservative "red states" and liberal "blue states." 11/5-18 - Slurpee Unity Tour: The tour visited 14 cities, driving local and national coverage in traditional and social media, including daily Facebook webisodes documenting the tour.11/18 – Slurpee Summit: Tour culminated in Washington, DC with a public Slurpee Summit and free concert for thousands.11/26 - Purple Friday: To extend the fun, we declared Black Friday – the big shopping day following Thanksgiving – as Purple Friday and offered all Americans a free Slurpee via a Facebook coupon.

Goal: Leverage Obama’s endorsement to earn 100 million media impressions and a 15 percent increase in Facebook followers.Results: Increased Facebook fans from 1.5 million to 2.8 million. Generated 1.7 billion media impressions, nearly 2,000 media stories and $5.5 million in ad value. By mid-November, BrandWeek reported 7-Eleven’s "Buzz scores" had doubled, and People Magazine named the tour a "Top 10 trend" in its "Best of 2010" roundup.Goal: Deliver "Unity" messaging in 50 percent of media coverage and avoid partisanship.Results: Slurpee was aligned positively with "Bipartisanship" and "Unity" in 95 percent of coverage, and the brand avoided any partisan negativity.Goal: Drive 7-Eleven traffic and sales during slowest months for frozen drinks.Results: In 7-Eleven’s words: "The ‘Slurpee Summit’ had an impact on the trend of the business in an otherwise off season."