Who would have thought that in the multi-coloured corner, Skittles would be setting the marketing world on its head?. Their new website focus's on connecting consumers together and generates conversations about the product through Facebook, Twitter and more. It's bold, new and it's sending marketers into a mix of excitement and panic.
The picture you see above sits ontop of your web brower and allows you to directly navigate to whatever Skittles info you are seeking. The home page is linked to Wikipedia, which screams cool! Sure Wikipedia is supposed to be facts, but there is plenty of user generated feedback within it. Twitter feeds directly into the site as well, want to say something cheeky and have it seen by thousands, just twitt using @skittles. So what is your inner marketer feeling...excited or scared?
The traditionalists will believe that unmoderated comments about your brand are a very dangerous thing, potentially doing irreparable damage to your brand equity. Conversly, those that are riding the social media train will look at this as a major breakthrough and a test of the concepts that are spoken about so often. The whole idea is to encourage those that enjoy skittles for any reason to communicate that, and stimulating a cascade effect, stimulating others that see the post to start thinking about the brand. Hell, I have never craved Skittles in my life, but I am headed to the store to buy a pack now!
Josh Strawczynski's Opinion
When marketers first wanted to make a Facebook page for their company, they were told that they were mad, now-a-days every company irrespective of size has at least some touchpoint within Facebook. Fully integrated social media (especially using live feeds like Twitter and Facebook) is going to be the next step in engaging consumers.
The Skittles campaign is already a huge success with over 600,000 friends having joined them on Facebook and a steady stream of messages about them on Twitter.
Jye Smith's Opinion
Skittles handed their brand over. It was up to us as the Twitter community to decide what to do with it. It was brave and while perhaps not the first instance, Twitter is at a point where the interaction was enormous.
Whether for shock, genius, or ignorance: it got people talking. People are still talking about this. And that's a good thing right?
We all have been reconnected with skittles: a brand that has been fairly quiet. What this means for marketers is what I've been saying about social media: new technologies, have meant new innovations but most importantly: new ways for people to connect, interact and share online.
The best description I've seen for it so far was from David Armarno:
Skittles is the Joker. They gave us the detinator. They gave us the choice to unleash chaos or not. We chose chaos. Lol. I love it.
I'll always choose chaos.
 | Jye Smith is a marketing executive for an online media publisher, and also works as a freelance producer, web and graphics designer and social media strategist. You can follow Jye on Twitter @jyesmith |
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