Skittles is on a social media,full-court press. Think:twitter,facebook,wikipedia,YouTube,flickr.
Instead of a web site,Skittles has deployed an aggregation of social tools. Their primary site is a twitter feed. Product information is stored on wikipedia. Ads have been posted on YouTube and flickr. Oh yeah,I am also a fan on facebook with 581,772 other facebook users.
Pretty impressive.
Skittles executed a well-thought out online social expression. Is this a glimpse of new marketing? Or a social stunt which will run its course soon? In reviewing the twitter banter,it seems the communication is not about skittles,but an industry love-fest (or backlash) for a marketer deploying a 100% social play. The tweeting included:
tevan:the redesigned http://skittles.com uses social networking to the extreme. those aren’t little candies;they’re colorful balls of steel.ner1ssa:discovered Skittlesis using new media for its website –Twitter,Flickr,YouTube,FaceBook and mobile web. Interesting. http://skittles.comahhyeah:Looks like http://skittles.com isn’t the only one with this idea,Check this out:http://www.modernista.com again,brilliant!johnmills:Skittles thinks they’re cool. They are not. Just another stupid publicity stunt from a corporate giant. Side note:I want some skittlesPapstio:Had to see what the whole Skittles hype was all about. Not bad! Doesn’t exactly make me want Skittles though.
Love it or hate it. The Skittles Social Experiment has struck a cord —at least in the industry. But can it work?
One awkward practice working against Skittles,is the requirement of providing an age prior to entering the site. Seems like this would alienate many Skittle consumers (e.g. my six-year-old son LOVES Skittles). Although common in the liquor and beer industry,it is not a common practice for CPG. The reason for age filtering is (obviously) some comments may be objectionable. And,yes,there were a few f-bombs,porn references,and other select profane comments in the feed.
Is Skittles turning over its brand? I am advocate for listening to customers and engaging brand advocates. This is not what Skittles is doing. Look,skittle-ites already own the brand. They don’t need Skittles.com to artificially inflate their advocacy. A Skittles advocate can blog,comment,or post about it anywhere on the social sphere. The goal should be not to replace the advocacy,but amplify it. But Will the Skittle advocate take time to contribute?
When the furor dies down and we (the industry) move onto our next social shiny object (should be about 72 hours),will the Skittles customer be heard. Right now,it is hard to tell if the site works for Skittles customers/advocates. With the advertising/PR industry flooding the site with comments,an advocates comment will get buried in the twitter barrage. Obviously,we (the industry) have plenty of time on our hands to use a twitter soapbox to profess admiration or disdain for the site. When the twitter dust settles will anyone care? Or will there be social silence?
