Skittles.com has rocked my world. While I am not a huge fan of the colorful lumps of sugar, the brand's latest website has truly given new meaning to "thinking outside the box." Skittles.com has launched a new type of homepage that I can appreciate both as an active PR student and a social networking practitioner.
The new site is simple, yet oddly confusing due to it's bold, unfamiliar new concept. When you first log on the site will ask you for your age using the hip, young phrase, "Spill it." The other element that is instantly noticeable is that Skittles.com is actually just their own Wikipedia article. That one caught me off guard.
In fact, all of the navigation on the Skittles "website" is comprised of popular websites, primarly social networking pages. The navigation is done via a small red box near the top right of the screen and list several areas to choose from: Home, Products, Media, Chatter, Friends, and Contact. Each of these options will take you to a website that is operating independently from Skittles but still has plenty of information and feedback relevant to the company and it's product.
Wow! The folks over at Skittles really did a number here. I can just picture the pitch: "Hey, lets not spend money on designing a tasteful candy website (ha, see what I did there). Instead lets just post links to websites that are a lot hotter than ours could ever be but are just as informative and relevant!"
And holy cow, it worked. With the exception of their "Products" and "Contact" section, Skittles.com visitors can navigate to Twitter, Wikipedia, Facebook and YouTube- all of which involve Skittles. For example, if you click on the "Friends" tab, your browser will take you to Skittles' Facebook page.
It's an incredibly simple concept that has made me double think about how PR and advertising should be done. I can only imagine that this candy company has acted as the match that falls on a barrel of gasoline. How many companies will try to recreate or copy this idea? Most, I think.
Skittles, although I am not a fan of your product, my hat is off to you.
Chad
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2 comments:
That makes me want to go Skittles bowling... next FHE activity... done and done! Thanks for the inspiration, Chad!
I agree- simplistic yet innovative. I always love it when sights target that younger market with "what up?" and in this case "spill it"....ha ha love it.
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