The campaign leveraged Ja'Marr Chase's influence, the scale of a live NFL broadcast, the power of creative storytelling in the news, and the immediacy of social media, to connect with sports fans.

Through this strategy rooted in earned media and an innovative social approach, 7-Eleven reached hundreds-of-millions and drove tangible commercial results. Ja’Marr Chase is one of the NFL”s superstars and one of the best at his position, wide receiver. His role on the field is to always stay open to catch passes. Following a loss where Ja’Marr was consistently open, but didn’t get thrown the ball, he began referring to himself as “7-11,” the iconic store that famously stays open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. He broadcast this message across social media and in TV interviews, without any prompting from the brand.? The brand responded with “Always Open:” a real-time, reactive partnership between Ja’Marr Chase and 7-Eleven that celebrates what it means to “Always be Open.” Less than 24-hours after Ja'Marr's reference to himself as "7-Eleven," the brand signed a deal with him and collaborated on a fashion line featuring his comments on hats and t-shirts, along with an iconic branded gold chain necklace.

Leveraging his enormous fanbase, Ja'Marr launched the merchandise collection on social media, directing traffic to our website, IsJamarrOpen.com, for purchase. Our idea continued to build the storytelling by ingraining the association between 7-Eleven and Ja’Marr Chase in culture. 7-Eleven figured out how to show up across TV and social media platforms, building its reputation through placements where the NFL typically bans any type of brands.

This included on the field during the game and during the walk to the locker room in pre-game. Brands are typically banned from being featured during NFL games other than in very specific placements that have high media price tags. However, at Ja’Marr’s next game - just one week after his initial comment – we got the 7-Eleven brand to show up all over the game…with no media cost. Ja’Marr wore the “Always Open” t-shirt during the televised walk to the locker room - showing off the 7-Eleven brand as part of his pregame fashion. And then, during the game, he wore the gold 7-Eleven necklace on the field. After multiple catches, he pulled it out and flashed it at the camera, yelling “7-Eleven!” Reach and engagement were strong and immediate. During the live broadcast of the game, the campaign reached 18M+ viewers. Over the course of the first week, the campaign earned over 500 million social and traditional media impressions, with over 99% positive sentiment for Ja’Marr Chase and 7-Eleven. Every major broadcaster and outlet in American sports media covered the campaign, including Sports Illustrated, ESPN, USA Today, SBNation, Bleacher Report, CBS Sports, Fox News, DraftKings, Barstool Sports, BroBible and more. As a result of the robust reach and social engagement, the Always Open collection sold out in less than 48 hours, as did the restock. 7-Eleven’s website saw the 2nd-highest-ever visitors, the “7-11” tweet t-shirt was the 2nd-best-selling 7-Eleven merchandise item in history, and it all led to $166,167 in sales in just the first week, with items continuing to sell rapidly today, over 6 months after the campaign ended.