Skittles.com relaunches as Twitter and social media feed

by Jacquie Bowser, Brand Republic 03-Mar-09, 11:50

LONDON - Skittles has given over its homepage to its Twitter search results following a website redesign that now directs consumers to user-generated content about the Mars brand on various social networking sites such as Flickr, YouTube and Facebook.

st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) }

Users who type in the Skittles.com web address are taken to a search webpage on micro-blogging site Twitter that features unfiltered comments by Twitter users mentioning the word "skittles".

The new Skittles webpage, created by Agency.com, is a small panel hovering over the Twitter page, which directs users to the company's YouTube channel, the Facebook fan page, its Wikipedia entry and to Skittles photos uploaded on Flickr.

Before they can interact with the site, users are asked to enter their date of birth and acknowledge that Skittles is not responsible for the content found on these social networking sites.

The move has created a major buzz for the brand online and sent "Skittles" to the top of Twitter's list of most discussed topics.

Some Twitter users have been posting completely unrelated topics, often promoting a different brand, followed by the term "#skittles", so it would show up in the tweet stream.

Others have been tweeting racy or profane comments to apparently mock Skittles when it has no ability to control what is said.

Ben Weisman, leading digital strategist at Iris, commented to the LA Times: "Skittles, or any other brand, has to be ready to accept the users' positive and negative comments.

"It's a simple execution, nothing groundbreaking, but it's bringing together platforms and users in direct engagement that's positive for the brand."

Skittles will change the content featured on its new homepage according to what is generating a buzz at the time. For example, late last week when the site relaunched, Skittles' Wikipedia entry featured as the homepage.

Read the IAB Blog for Kieron Matthews' take on the new Skittles.com website.

Comments

Angie Moncada - 06/03/2009

So with all the buzz about #skittles - it begs the question: http://isinterwebthefuture.com? fun for a friday...

Richard Gardner - 06/03/2009

Great idea in theory, but if you look over to the comments in their You Tube page you'll see the reoccurring problem of opening up the discussion without monitoring the results. There are some really quite offensive comments that just aren't suitable. Is Mars actually monitoring this? It reflects really badly on them! So they have utilised a survey form at the opening page, possibly to filter out the young consumers, but it's not just that group that needs to be protected from those less desirable at building a consumer revolution around Skittles. After 3 days I would have expected the following to have been removed: "i eat s*** and drink my p** after i rinse skittle vag*** blood f**** on my face" Horrific! Do this properly Mars or all your forward thinking is in vein.