March 10th, 2009
by treatmentspecialist
Skittlegate - Could Skittles.com be the end of the homepage as we know it?
Skittlegate has been the topic of many heated marketing discussions since the company website was replaced with a real-time Twitter feed last Monday.
As David Armano points out, it was originally advertising agency Modernista! that threw away their Website in favor of simply patching together all of their information across various social networks so users would view their site “through the eyes of the web.” Nearly a year later, Skittles has done the same thing.
Could this be the end of the homepage as we know it?
Go to Skittles.com and you will find a “siteless website” that allows you to navigate between social media destinations like Wikipedia, Twitter search results, Facebook product pages, Flickr photostream, and video channels on YouTube, to simple product information on and don’t forget photos on.
Will tomorrow’s brands rely mostly on real time content and search results in combination with social network profiles?
It’s also remarkable that Skittles was open to losing control
of their website and their messaging.
By pulling content from social sites in real time, they are potentially displaying unflattering conversations in a very prominent manner on their web site.
If you are trying to spread your ideas and create a World Wide Rave (a la David Meerman Scott), then a bold move like this can definitely create a major trigger that gets people talking!
In fact, Skittles reportedly saw a 1332% increase in web visitors in one day!
So we’ve all see the site by now. But what’s next?
Critics have been quick to point out that this so far has been a one-sided conversation, since Skittles doesn’t control @Skittles, nor do they, or parent company Mars, Inc., participate in Twitter discussions.
If Skittles is serious about embracing the power of social media, they will listen in on the conversations and maybe even taste the interweb rainbow themselves.
Follow me on Twitter @my_dog_ate_it
Marketing Therapist
(March 10th, 2009 at 1:25 am)
You mean to tell me that after all this work to launch http://www.webmarketingtherapy.com we could have had a website-less site?
Now you tell me!
Interesting concept…the “prosumer” brand hand-off is really gutsy…smart gutsy! And I loved skittles all by myself (sour ones preferred) This will be hot to stay tuned and follow!