Gatorade Gridiron Ice Slurpee

[ThePieHole]

7-11 has just begun a Madden '09 tie in that includes game sales at their stores, collectable cups (the four players I believe are Peyton and Eli Manning, LaDanian Tomlinson, and Reggie Bush), and most notably the first-ever Gatorade Slurpee flavor. The press-release just refers to it as "a new sports-themed flavor in August" and that "7-Eleven will be making a big play that month with a new first-of-its-kind Slurpee".

I'm actually somewhat suprised that Gatorade went in this direction. They've been trying new things (G2, Tiger), but 2 1/2 years ago Jeff Urban, the director of sports marketing, was quoted as saying "Things that you might otherwise do as a second-tier brands are things that you won't do as a first-tier brand. A great example for us is, 7-Eleven -- which is one our greatest distribution opportunities -- comes to us and says, 'Gatorade do a Slurpee.' Now, I can do a Slurpee and do $150 million more in sales, but its going to denigrate the brand equity that we stand for because its not ice, its not going to taste as good and all these kinds of things."

I had the flavor last night. It clearly isn't one of their established flavors. It was a bright green color, but the combination of fruit flavors definitely escaped me. The tag said something about "energy formula" as well, but I checked with the store worker, and according to him, it did not have caffiene in it. I did enjoy it a lot, although I can't say it reminded me that much of Gatorade.

If anyone has any formal information or any other knowledge or links relating to this, please post. Thanks!

Link to the press release: Slurpee(R): Keepin' Its Cool | Reuters (http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS117438+24-Jun-2008+BW20080624)

Link to the Jeff Urban interview: Darren Rovell's Gatorade blog: Not Coming Soon: Gatorade Slurpee (http://firstinthirst.typepad.com/darren_rovells_blog_on_al/2005/12/not_coming_soon.html)

[Mr Zabe]

Awesome heads up. Thanks for sharing.
I hope the new slurpee flavor has more sweet
than tart flavor notes. It would be cool if
Gatorade could go "old school" and recreate
the original lemon lime flavor for this promotion.
Gosh I still have flash backs from the 70's playing
basket ball and savoring ice cold glass bottles
of lemon lime Gatorade.

[ThePieHole]

A couple of updates to my original post:

I've had the Gridiron Ice Slurpee two more times, but from a more reliable store--where it was Orange, not Green. I have to belive the first place changed the tags without changing the product--it was past 1am on a Thursday and they may have just been preparing for a product change on Friday. A number of 7-11's will put up their outdoor ad boards and even the ads on the Slurpee machines sometimes days before they actually offer the product. The employee today asked me what flavor I thought it was, and in discussing the color change acknowledged that may have been what happened. Maybe the Green was the Incredible Hulk promotional flavor? I never actually tried it.

As for this flavor, it was much more Gatorade and much more Orange. I'm sure it could be any sort of citrusy offshoot, but it isn't far from Orange in it's basic form.

Additionally, the cup lineup is LT, Mrs. Kim Kardashian (Reggie Bush), Eli Manning, and Tony Romo (I originally reported Peyton Manning instead of Tony, wrong blue-jerseyed QB.

P.S. Zabe, I also have flashbacks from the '70's. That was a rockin' 9 months for me (born in March '79). Very trippy. :-)