To drive sell-through of the 7UP Shirley Temple LTO, we created an earned-first idea that generated awareness and media coverage. Our campaign kicked-off at the end of September 2024 with product arriving on shelves by October 15 with a plan to sell-out by year-end. The earned-first idea was rooted in the magic of the holiday season and childlike joy – a feeling adults often long to reconnect with. In fact, searches for “adult kids’ table” spike every holiday season – and was already up 57% YOY leading up to the 2024 holiday season, highlighting the nostalgia people feel during that time of year. Inspired by the #1 most-visited beverage recipe on 7UP.com, 7UP® Shirley Temple strengthened the brand’s status as a key ingredient in the beloved mocktail.
Although our original launch was planned for early October, the 7UP Shirley Temple LTO was leaked on social media, prompting us to accelerate the launch. To capitalize on the organic buzz, we coordinated the official earned media launch with the brand’s social rollout, creating a cohesive and ownable campaign. We generated widespread awareness by targeting key verticals, including food and beverage, trending news, consumer lifestyle, and commerce. The outreach highlighted the brand's RTBs and the nostalgic LTO flavor. Additionally, we sustained momentum by incorporating timely pitches into holiday coverage, such as 'holiday entertaining must-haves' and 'the mocktail of the season.’
We hosted a fun and vibrant in-person Kids’ Table dinner in NYC and invited media to join in the fun and kick-off the holiday season by revisiting childhood traditions – like drinking Shirley Temples – while discovering the relevance of the kids’ table to today’s adults through our survey results. We conducted a survey that revealed adults’ nostalgia for the kids’ table and hosted the dinner at Serendipity 3 in New York City, which included a menu of elevated kids’ food paired with 7UP Shirley Temple.
7UP also partnered with Melissa Ben-Ishay (CEO and co-founder of Baked by Melissa) to develop new recipes and create social content featuring an elevated, fun take on the kids’ table and holiday dishes that incorporated 7UP Shirley Temple. We also leveraged her for media interviews for more robust storytelling coverage.
With the new product scheduled to hit shelves in mid-October, we planned to begin embargo outreach in the first week of October. However, a social media post from @snackolator leaked the product news on September 24, sparking chatter and curiosity. As major celebrities joined the conversation like Post Malone and Kristin Chenoweth, we seized the opportunity by moving up our launch timing to capitalize on the momentum. In a few hours, we created a hero image and developed outreach materials to hit the ground running.
The 7UP Shirley Temple LTO launch went viral, generating more than 4.4M engagements on social media within the first week! We have secured 423 earned placements, totaling 6B earned media impressions, and 6.8M social earned engagements with 331M potential reach.
Google search volume for 7UP spiked after news leaked about the Shirley Temple LTO on 9/24 and after the brand’s confirmation of the product. From 10/20/2024-10/26/2024, coinciding with the TODAY Show POPStart segment and Delish.com syndications, search volume peaked, hitting its highest level in five years.
The Campaign drove impressive growth to the 7UP brand, driving +13% dollar sales to outperform the carbonated soft drink category by +7pts. The limited time flavor brought new occasions and consumers to the trademark with 67% of all 7UP Shirley Temple trialists new to the brand and 92% of sales being incremental (just 8% of occasions sourced from other 7UP sales).
