things well done | skittles.com ::
Monday, March 2nd, 2009:: it’s rare that I write about my “day job” or the world of digital / social media and marketing, etc., but today I came across something I was particularly impressed with: www.skittles.com
Mars and Agency.com have turned Skittles’ web site into a mashup of several 3rd party social media services, with only a small widget-like “remote control” that floats over the content acting as a site navigation device. In fact, the widget seems to be the only Skittles-made / branded content on the whole site, the rest is essentially user generated content hosted on other sites that is being aggregated (and unedited!) within the Skittles.com domain.
Despite an epically terrible name for the site, “Interweb the Rainbow, Taste the Raindow” (maybe I just don’t get it…a possibility), the site is, dare I say, fucking genius! (Although, not entirely original as Modernista did it first.)
Skittles has effectively surrendered its brand to netizens. As my colleague said today, “Skittles has taken the common social media mantra, “go to where your stakeholders are” to a whole new level.” While true, I think that’s an understatement. The brand has not only gone to where its stakeholders are and engaged them, they have invited them inside its most precious digital asset (the brand site) and asked them to fill in the blanks –– consumers are now fully in control.
The Skittles’ homepage now displays a live Twitter stream resulting from a “keyword: Skittles” search query (currently the #1 trending topic on Twitter). The products page loads up a Wikipedia entry, allowing netizens to input their own “product information.” The media page loads up the brand’s YouTube channel (video) or its Flickr page (photo). A friends page loads up the brand’s Facebook fan page (nearly 600K people)…enough already, just go check it out: www.skittles.com
This is one of the boldest things I have seen a brand do online. It will be interesting to see how the campaign plays-out and how its “managed” (if at all) after the intial hoopla dies down. Comparing bottom lines after 6 months will also be interesting. I’m willing to bet sales soar. Skittles has likely never been more widely discussed or top-of-mind online than right now, and it will surely get a mountain of press for this –– but how durable it that? Maybe the whole thing will amount to brand suicide / anarchy. Whatever it is, I am all for it. I applaud the boldness, I applaud the “risk” Mars / Skittles has taken to push the boundries of “what has been done and did.” I look forward to the case study. Bravo, well done. // AjS
