Skittles.com, the website for the popular fruit flavored candy, has recently undergone a bit of a makeover. This in and of itself is none too surprising - product sites can be counted on to shake themselves up on an almost perpetual basis. But whats interesting is just how Skittles decided to manage their new site. Or perhaps more accurately, how they decided to stop managing it at all.If you're not one to click on links to candy websites for fear that its sweet temptations will corrupt you, then you should probably seek professional help. But I am a sympathetic soul, so I've provided non-tempting screens for your viewing pleasure. The image to the right(ish) is the new skittles.com. So whats the big deal? The big deal is that this "website" isnt actually a website at all. It is just a hovering box that serves as a jumpoff point to every major skittles web 2.0 presence. Clicking the media link sends you to the skittles YouTube channel. Home or product links drops you off at the Skittles Wikipedia entry. Friends? The Skittles Facebook page. And chatter? None other than a search feed of every tweet that contains the word "skittles" in it.
What does it all look like when it comes together? A little something like this:
Or this:
There are two reasons I like this move. First and foremost, it conveys the message that the consumer/ customer is a critical piece of the product. Participation is essential. Setting the new skittles "homepage" to be its own wikipedia entry is not only a request for active involvement, but a literal acknowledgment that the community will and should determine the fate of the brand.
Secondly, it shows a confidence on the part of Mars Candy to step back and relinquish control of the message. The community would be perfectly within its rights to slam skittles on the Facebook page, the YouTube channel, or on Twitter. And without any real web presence to speak of, the disparaging remarks would be all that would be seen should a curious buyer visit skittles.com. That fear of "what people might say" would (and still does in some cases) cripple organizational efforts to embrace Web 2.0 and its exciting to see a company toss such fears to the wind.
You can almost taste the rainbow of social technologies. But will it blend? For that answer, we'll just have to wait and see.
Screenshots taken from skittles.com
As you can guess I am a big fan of this move. The ideas related to self correcting communities are very important to the things I think quite a bit about. I am stunned that such a powerful brand is moving in this direction ... it leaves me wondering if this is something other (non-candy) producers would consider? If you use the Twitter search for psu or pennstate you get a very active twitter powered conversation going ... would be wild to see PSU embrace something like this for a portion of its real web presence.
This is very cool. Forcing me once again to think more critically about the websites we run.
By free association, you've made me recall one deathly quiet Friday afternoon in our pre-Rider Bldg. cubicle farm in the Computer Bldg. One of those days when you could have heard a pin drop. When all of a sudden there was an explosion and subsequent shower of Skittles of all the colors of the rainbow...look, just ask your office mate about it someday.