Skittles Twitters the Rainbow

Skittles Twitters the Rainbow

Posted on 02. Mar, 2009 by LaSandra Brill in Social Media

 What if a real company decided to turn their whole site into a twitter conversation?

That’s what skittles did in what can only be described as a bold move to embrace Web 2.0.

What a unique approach. In a traditional viral campaign, you launch a viral concept and it takes on a life of its own, living in media largely beyond your control. Skittles did one better. They launched a viral campaign and turned their website into an incubator for the virus. Talk about putting your money where your mouth is! An argument could be made that the skittles website isn’t core to their product sales, so replacing it with a twitter results page isn’t as big of a risk as if a B2B company were to do it. But still, you have to respect the moxie of Skittles’ Web 2.0 marketing team. What a great campaign!

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3 Comments

Posted in Social Media

3 Responses to “Skittles Twitters the Rainbow”

  1. Kelly Feller @ Intel

    03. Mar, 2009

    Hi LaSandra…welcome back! Glad to see your post!  But I might have to respectfully disagree. Marketing is only deemed successful if it causes some sort of action. Did you go buy some Skittles? Was there an increase in the purchase of Skittles following this “stunt?” I ask this because I get asked this all the time: social media is fun but what does it really do for a brand? I have an opinion, but it doesn’t include marketing stunts like the Skittles example.

    What are your thoughts? Do you really think it made a difference for the brand or influenced consumer purchasing behavior?

  2. LaSandra Brill

    04. Mar, 2009

    @kellyrfeller - thanks for the welcome. As for the Skittles campaign, it’s kinda like when you’re with friends after dinner and someone breaks out a pack of gum. You probably would have been fine without a piece of gum but now that it’s in your mind you want one. I think this campaign will result in a spike of sales Skittles but on the flip side I don’t think it’s a sustainable model. Eventually the news will get old and people will stop talking about it. But for now they are getting a lot of buzz not just online but on radio talk shows and even the evening news. It worked on me, I bought a bag of Purple Skittles - my favorite!

  3. Michael Brito

    05. Mar, 2009

    I actually did buy some skittles after all the hype.

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