Dive Brief:

• 7-Eleven is teaming with Live Nation and will serve as the first naming-rights partner of the When We Were Young Festival and bring onsite experiences to The Governors Ball and Rolling Loud, per a press release.
• The convenience chain will sponsor a 7-Eleven Hangout activation and the 7-Eleven Stage at When We Were Young and will host a Slurpee Street activation at The Governors Ball and Rolling Loud.
• The partnership puts the iconic brand at the center of live music culture and could help it connect with crucial millennial and Gen Z consumers through nostalgia.

Dive Insight:

7-Eleven is turning up the volume to eleven through its partnership with Live Nation. The partnership represents the first time the live entertainment company, which also includes Ticketmaster, has sold the naming rights to a U.S. festival. By securing its first-ever naming rights deal for a popular festival and activating at two others, the convenience store chain can put its brand at the center of culture and connection, according to Marissa Jarratt, executive vice president and chief marketing and sustainability officer at 7-Eleven.

“By teaming up with Live Nation, we're bringing the 7-Eleven brand to the heart of unforgettable fan moments. We're eager to recreate the fun and excitement that comes with visiting a 7-Eleven store in an immersive music experience for the next generation of brand fans,” Jarratt said in the press release.

When We Were Young Festival takes place Oct. 18-19 at the Las Vegas Festival Grounds and is headlined by pop-punk emo giants Panic! at the Disco, Blink-182 and Weezer. The 7-Eleven activation at the festival "channels early 2000s emo energy" and could speak to the millennial consumers for whom this style of music is nostalgic.

The immersive, social-first activations are intended to be reminiscent of in-store experiences. The Slurpee Street at The Governors Ball (June 6-8 at Randall's Island in New York) is inspired by a summer block party and includes a stoop and free Slurpees. A similar activation will appear at the hip-hop-focused Rolling Loud festival and nod to street art culture.

Music festivals are part of a music event market that was valued at more than $250 billion in 2023 and is forecast to grow to more than $775 billion by 2035, per an Allied Market Research report. As music festivals have proliferated, Live Nation's slate — including genre-specific ones like When We Were Young and Rolling Loud — and major events like Goldenvoice's Coachella have become heavy with brand activations as experiential marketing returns to pre-pandemic levels.

Unilever's Dove this month iterated on its “Let Your Body Body” campaign with an effort that leveraged music festival season to promote the brand’s whole body deodorant line. Likewise, Scotch-Brite extended a musically focused campaign with a presence at Coachella. 

Seven & i Holdings, parent company of 7-Eleven, announced in its latest earnings report that 7-Eleven’s same-store sales in the U.S. fell 2.7% in fiscal 2024 and are expected to contract by another 1.5% in fiscal 2025. The parent company last month announced plans for a U.S. IPO but is also evaluating a takeover bid from Alimentation Couche-Tard.