Skittles, the chewy, fruit-flavored candy from Mars, Inc. has jumped into social media in an innovative new way: They have coded their website so their navigation now floats over three of the most popular social media websites.
Skittles.com is now nothing more than a navigation box floating over the Twitter search results for the term “skittles.” Essentially, this is capturing all the Twitter conversations regarding their brand (and their new marketing tactic) right on their homepage. Click the the Friends button, and the nav will float over their Facebook Fan Page. The Media button floats their nav over their YouTube channel.
“Skittles” has been the number one search topic on Twitter and in social media since Sunday, and as you might expect, most commentators love it. It’s bold, innovative and its helping drive word of mouth regarding the Skittles brand with people who love to share ideas.
The company has been criticized for abdicat[ing] their brand voice and failing to filter the feed, resulting in competitors links, profanity and some unsavory tweets from pranksters.
Whether the failure to filter was intentional or not, I don’t know, but by not filtering visitors get to see the authentic conversations regarding the brand. Still, all tweets aren’t suitable for children.
So, do you think Skittles new social media play is responsible or not?
Comment below to share.
I expect many more companies to follow the Skittles lead. Twitter has become a powerful marketing stream.
I think Skittles should definitely filter out profanity or inappropriate material for kids. Other than that, I think it is brilliant because they are not doing the safe boring thing, but trying something new and unique with their website.