Activision, 7-11, Coca-Cola, and Microsoft have announced a joint blitzkrieg promotion involving the upcoming Guitar Hero: Aerosmith and Slurpee cups at 7-11. Apparently there’s a new slurpee flavor called “Full Throttle Frozen Blast” and what better way to promote a frozen energy drink to the coveted 18-34 male demographic than to slap branding of Ben Throttle Aerosmith on the cups?
I have no problem with promoting video games to the mainstream with beverage branding. I actually thought the Halo 3-themed Mountain Dew flavor last year was a good cog in the giant promotions machine for the game.
What I do question, is a) The existence of Guitar Hero: Aerosmith in the first place and b) Do young people who go to 7-11 care about Aerosmith?
“The sweet spot of the core Slurpee customer is between 18 and 24 years old,” said Jay Wilkins, brand manager for Slurpee and Big Gulp® beverages. “Our goal is to keep Slurpee as cool today as it was to teens and young adults in the 1960s when it was first introduced.”
Aerosmith might have been cool to teens and young adults in the first decade the Slurpee was introduced, but somehow I highly doubt the kids of today are rebelling against their parents by listening to Honkin’ on Bobo and drinking their slurpees.
See, the thing about the Halo Mountain Dew promotion was that there hadn’t been a Halo game released in 3 years. The anticipation and excitement was there – having a Mountain Dew flavor was just adding to the hysteria. We just had a Guitar Hero game release nary six months ago, with another two coming out in early summer.
Why don’t we save the all out promotion blitzes for when you put out Rock Band Guitar Hero IV in a couple of years months?
Read the press release [biz.yahoo.com]