7-Eleven races to grab Generation Y’s attention

June 1 2010, 8:34am

Convenience retailer 7-Eleven has been reaching out to Generation Y in a series of social media related promotions, including a three week contest which ended this past Friday and pitted two teams driving across the country and fans living vicariously through them online. Road Trip Rally offered a web video series on the contest website and allowed fans to follow each cars’ progress on Twitter or an interactive map. Webisodes and contest challenges were all filmed by production company Happy Little Guillotine Films, who traveled alongside the teams to fill and upload content on the site. Each team of amateur drivers moved from point to point in cars decked out like the 7-Eleven Indy cars, all the way to the motor speedway at the Indy 500 finish line. Teams could only stop for food and gas at 7-Eleven stores along their respective routes and earned points for their team by winning challenges. The latest promotion has partnered the company with Facebook game producer Zynga, whose most popular games are Farmville, Mafia Wars and YoVille. Together with Zynga, 7-Eleven will be putting cups with access codes to the games in stores. Consumers who purchase products with codes on them can visit a website and unlock downloads and virtual goods that can be used in game play. “Millennials live and breathe in social networking and social gaming,” said Stephanie Hoppe, 7-Eleven’s senior director of marketing. “We want to deliver experiences that are unique and fun to capture that audience.