In the past five years, every serious marketer has been using social networking sites to promote products, ideas, and in the best case scenario, create a subculture. For example, Cadbury Chocolate have gained new awareness with their drum-toting gorilla, pounding his way through Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight.” These creative mash-ups and cultural pairings have new meaning once they are introduced on the ever-changing stage of the internet. This is where Skittles.com and their agency of record, Agency.com, have broke new ground for a mainstream brand with a simple and unique execution that appears to be a direct lift from Modernista’s website.
Utilizing the most popular social networking/Web 2.0 sites, Skittles.com wields various sites on the internet as a container for their content. Entering the URL will direct you to a fully-branded YouTube page with Skittles ads, favorites and various links to stay connected with the brand. A branded YouTube page is nothing new, but this navigational execution is. Although this site is using YouTube, it has it’s own unique URL and a floating navigation that can be minimized for a less intrusive experience. Further exploration will lead you to a Skittles specific Flickr page, a Facebook page, a Twitter feed and even Wikipedia to display information on the specific flavors.
In a purely executional fashion, Skittles.com has put itself right in the center of its target audiences field of vision. I can almost see the creative brief now:
Client: “We are looking to create an engaging site that utilizes social networking and Web 2.0 technologies.”
This is one time where a literal interpretation can become a straight on creative execution – well done. We are eager to see what’s next.
by Jeff Jura
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