Social Media Takes Over Skittles
Posted March 2nd, 2009 by Mike Rynchek
Mike Rynchek
Spyder Trap Online Marketing
We are all fans of the rainbow colored candy Skittles but recently their website has taken on a bit of a different flavor. Check out www.Skittles.com and you will see that the site is now an overlay of their Twitter search page and various other social media sites. (Notably not MySpace…hmm…) Test it out, by tweeting about Skittles and watch it show up behind the site. Skittles didn’t stop there. If you click on “Images” you will be taken to their Flickr page. “Video”? Yup, redirected to the Skittles YouTube channel. Check out the “Friends” link, of course it links to Facebook. In my opinion, the most creative feature is that the product links connect you to their Wikipedia page.
So the question I pose to you Social Media fanatics and general consumers is this: “What do you think? Good idea/bad idea? Is this a cool concept that lacks function or a ground breaking new strategy that will revolutionize the branding industry as we know it?”
I will reserve my opinion for a later date.
PS – Thanks to Jason Douglas of Spyder Trap Online Marketing (@jasondouglas) for pointing this out.
Tags: Minneapolis Online Marketing firm, Skittles, Social Media, Spyder Trap Online Marketing
12 Responses to “Social Media Takes Over Skittles”
March 2nd, 2009 at 7:04 pm
I admit, it’s really slick. Maybe it’s working for me, too as I just may buy some skittles just so I can take a goofy picture of them to send to their Flickr group.
I’m gonna’ play the devil’s advocate though. When I first went to the Skittles site, I clicked back cuz I didn’t feel like entering my birthdate.
Then I got to thinking, I actively use Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and… ok not so much YouTube. But a lot of people consider social sites like FB and Twitter nothing but useless time-wasters.
Dunno, I’m torn. It’s definitely making a buzz. Look forward to hearing your thoughts, Mike!
March 2nd, 2009 at 7:49 pm
Hey Paul,
I think from a creative standpoint, it is one of the best pieces I have ever seen. There is nothing like taking your product and putting it right in the middle of the top Social Media buzz facilitators. Because the site really has no conversion point, rather is more of a brand awareness tool I think only adds to the validity of the idea. I agree, that the birthday form is a little odd and it makes me wonder why they are collecting this data other than demographic data of Skittle Social Media fans but I think the idea works. It has quickly become one of the most talked about Social Media projects and there is nothing better than letting others do your marketing for you. Finally, I think it displays a bit of the creative freedoms that Social Media affords.
It will be interesting to see what others come up with next.
Thanks for the comment!
Mike
March 2nd, 2009 at 8:01 pm
I’d like to hear your thoughts too, Mike! But here are mine for now:
The concept is awesome for social media types like us. But what about everyone else? A lot of people still don’t know what Twitter is. I also didn’t think the navigation was that great- I was confused by it at first. But I do like the idea and I thought the Wikipedia thing was cool too.
Like Paul, I’m torn. I think it’s a good idea, but I’m leaning on the side of “cool idea that lacks function.” I’ll be interested to see what kind of results it generates in terms of number of new “friends” added to fan page, number of skittles tweets in the long-run, etc.
March 2nd, 2009 at 8:16 pm
Hey Liz,
Thanks for the comment.
Think about it this way and I am not saying its right or wrong, simply throwing it out there. When performing Social Media marketing, building the groundswell/following is 90 percent of the work. Once the following has been built you are simply responding, fueling and participating in the conversation. So they can run this site promotion for a few months, quickly and inexpensively build a following of well over a half million on Facebook which they can market towards essentially for the cost of producing and managing the content. Much, much more inexpensive than any media buy and best of all they now have a captive audience of loyal Skittles patrons.
What do you think?
I agree some functional aspects could have been implemented differently.
Some very good points Liz thanks again for the comment.
Mike
March 2nd, 2009 at 9:22 pm
I do agree with you Mike. Once I realized what they were doing with the new site, I thought it was a fantastic idea. I think my only problem with it is that visitors are re-directed to the Skittles social sites, but not exactly encouraged to join in themselves. And like I said before, this is a complicated site for people who have never heard of Twitter or Flickr.
What you just described makes the concept brilliant. I think I’d be completely in love with this idea if they could have somehow encouraged participation more effectively, but really that goes back to the functional aspects of the site that I obviously think could have been done better.
Do you think they could have done something better to encourage participation?
March 2nd, 2009 at 11:14 pm
Hey Liz,
Yeah its a cool/smart idea yet not completely intuitive for some novice novice Social Media users. But remember the likely demographic of Skittles consumers is probably pretty young and tech savvy. They have basically recreated the site design and pulled in the feeds, so really they could have any call to action they desired all be it, sign up, submit your Skittle video/pic etc. or even share with a friend. (I know this because the sites query string stays under the Skittles domain, they turned off navigation that they could not control ex. RSS and they open all links in a new window.) I am with you in terms of usability and when it comes to design Social Media campaigns, websites and especially landing pages I always make sure we design to the lowest common denominator in terms of users. In other words I prefer to make the call to action as clear and obvious as possible.
Finally, as I alluted to above they could and still might make a campaign around it to encourage participation. Give away a free trip in return for participation/content and you can almost always count on participation.
Make sense? Great follow up question.
Thanks,
Mike
March 3rd, 2009 at 4:07 am
though this is a good move by skittle ,in fact a bold step. my only doubt is if anyone tweers negative , will that not have an affect ? since it will be shown on home page
March 3rd, 2009 at 11:26 am
Nice write-up Mike. Your comments and conversation here bring up some great points. Ultimately, Skittles has gone and blazed a new path and they will hopefully learn (or listen) to the details that would make it even more successful for their next phase or stab at it. Somebody has to go first, right? Very cool.
March 3rd, 2009 at 12:39 pm
Hey Sean,
Thanks for the comment. There is no doubt that opening yourself up in the Social Media world can lead to issues around negative comments or the potential for negative comments. The great thing about the Social Media platform is that you have the chance to respond and hopefully change that negative perception. We see this all the time and it a very useful tool when used correctly. Social Media platforms can be a great way to take nay sayers into brand advocates that could help promote your brand in the future.
What are your thoughts?
Mike
March 3rd, 2009 at 12:48 pm
Hey Aaron,
Thanks for the comment and feedback!
I think it is simply amazing from a marketing communication and creative standpoint the versatility that has been afforded to marketers. Though the project is not 100 percent perfect, I think your right… It’s cool that someone took a big Social Media step and pulled together a pretty cool project.
Mike
March 3rd, 2009 at 8:46 pm
What was done here is pretty groundbreaking. Skittles is allowing the voice of the groundswell to control the brand. It is kind of interesting to see your own tweet on the homepage of a major candy manufacturer.
What is the next step though? Is there a way to control voice that they are embracing?
I am very interested in seeing what Skittles does next, along with who the copy-cats will be.
Good post, Mike!
~Jason
March 3rd, 2009 at 8:50 pm
I agree Jason. Its pretty groundbreaking as someone had to experiment with something like this first. It will be interesting to see if something like this catches on (which it probably will) but I hope it doesn’t always look as cluttered as the Skittles site.
It is pretty cool though how Skittles is letting the consumers drive the voice of the brand, though.
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