Skittles leverages social media for homepage
3 Mar
Agency.com recently did the redesign for skittles.com and it’s gaining lots of coverage. The big story here is how Skittles is using Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, and wikipedia as it’s traditional website. When users visit the Skittles homepage they instead arrive at a twitter search for “skittles”. The idea of leveraging internet, real-time chatter and existing web 2.0 content is nothing new. Some of you may remember when Modernista did it back in 2008.
When Modernista, a Boston based ad agency did it they were being relevant. They were showcasing that they were adept at navigating the social and viral aspects of the internet and were bubbling up content that was about them, but not (necessarily) produced by them.
My company recently pitched an idea for website that showcases the relevancy and weight of their existing brands by displaying the real time chatter surrounding their brands. The concept was to show that even though this company had many different brands under its umbrella that all of them were consistent and popular. Of course that was only to be a part of the overall experience.
I think it is a bold move to open up your brand so that anything anyone types will be displayed. It shows the confidence that they have in their product. It also opens them up to spamming, negative comments, and most of all dilution. If you visit the skittles page right now, it is all about the skittles new website. It is harder for me to find information about the skittles product than it is about their website. Most of the tweets are people who included the keyword “skittles” in their post just to make it on skittles.com
At this point, Mars has to look and see if this approach is appropriate for the brand. This works well as part of a larger strategy, but falls short here. Right now the experience is purely one-sided. It would be more effective, more transparent if Mars, Inc used this medium to engage their customers in a dialogue and have an open conversation. They could take this opportunity to explain why they chose to use this as their homepage, what they hope to accomplish and most importantly ask and converse with their customers. The idea is to peel back the layer of advertising and give a transparent look inside for visitors.
When I first seen this the only thing I could think of was the Modernista site you showed me last year. You all should have patented that idea!
Ha! Yeah, it’s a total Modernista bite. But wherever there is a good idea imitation will always happen, it’s inevitable.
While this approach is clearly appropriate for a creative ad agency website. I just don’t see how it fits with the (existing) Skittles brand. Seems out of place.
I think it was perfectly executed, perfectly timed, and perfect for the brand. They’ve thrown the bulk of their money into content for their YouTube video channel, so pointing “skittles.com” to their YouTube profile is appropriate.