As someone that works in the realm of Social Media, Marketing, Branding and everything else that falls into that list, I find it very interesting the transformation that Skittles.com has undergone and the buzz that it generated. Basically, Skittles.com has removed the conventional corporate created, corporately controlled marketing site and surrendered to the User Generated Content that exists on the web. Typing in skittles.com loads up the Twitter search for Skittles while also starting the remains of what was Skittles.com – a widget with links to “Products,” “Media,” “Chatter,” “Friends” – all those links correspond to third-party social networking sites like Youtube, Flickr, and Facebook.

As I pointed out in my earlier post and shown below, the buzz generated from this launch was astronomical compared to the normal conversations that occur surrounding the brand.  With a brand like Skittles, that buzz is priceless.  With their ‘Taste the Rainbow’ catch phrase almost 15 years old – they needed to do something to rejuvenate and create conversation surrounding the brand.  In today’s over-saturated marketplace, the best thing to do is to join the social media revolution.   Except, with something as simple as a candy, there isn’t much conversation surrounding a candy.  Instead, they created a conversation surrounding social media – and thrust themselves into the middle of it.  It’s a brilliant move as illustrated by the levels of buzz surrounding this.

The Skittles brand is very powerful.  If I opened my hand and offered you a rainbow of small oval candies – you would instantly assume they were Skittles.  Yet, on the internet – they weren’t anything.  I can’t recall what their website was prior to this.  In fact, until today – I don’t think I ever actually visited the website of any candy – nor had any real conversation regarding them.  Skittles seemed to recognize that they couldn’t exactly “join the conversation” if there wasn’t one to be had.  Instead, they leveraged a brand that is probably the biggest brand/meme on the internet today – Social Media.  By becoming the first major brand to just surrender to the Social Media sites – they created a stirring conversation that involved their brand.  That buzz isn’t about Skittles though – it’s about Social Media.  Skittles is merely riding the wave.

I think it’s almost universally assumed that the novelty of this will wear off in the very fickle Social Media realm quickly.  In fact, other than talking about what they did – there really isn’t much to talk about.  Skittles are my favorite candy of all time.  They were prior to this.  They probably will be after this.  There really isn’t too much to talk about – and it will be interesting to check back in a month/3 months/a year to see how long Skittles will continue with this methodology.  I have a feeling it will fade very quickly.  In fact, if their marketing department is any good, they are already working on a web relaunch – because when that happens, it will create additional buzz.

As more brands enter this realm, new and exciting methods will be produced.  Like Skittles, not every brand can simply “join the conversation.”  Most have to actually create it.  The best way is to piggyback on something larger than yourself.  A little while back with the Chris Brogan/Izea/KMart conversations were a flutter - KMart received a significant buzz.  It wasn’t KMart people were really concerned with though – it was Chris and the concepts of right/wrong in Social Media.  Chris is, by far, a much larger brand in Social Media than KMart.  The buzz that was generated had little to do with KMart and it’s faded since then back to the same levels it was at before.  Which then brings up the larger question of whether these kind of “events” actually are worth it in the end?  Most brands are trying to figure out that question and, the successful ones, will find an answer that works for them.