Skittles
Skittles, another brand owned by Mars Snackfood U.S., took a novel -- and now infamous -- approach this spring toward consumer-created content by redesigning its website as an unfiltered channel for Skittles-related Twitter feeds, Flickr photos, Facebook fans, and YouTube videos.
Although the brand shot to the top of Twitter's trending topics a few days after the redesign launched, it also became the target of pranksters and marketing opportunists discussing unrelated products. "The question you always have to ask as marketers is what value are you bringing to the table? What is Skittles providing people other than just showing them what people are saying about their brand?" O'Neal says.
The buzz has declined since the site's traffic high of 78,000 users in April. Current traffic is back to pre-redesign figures of approximately 19,000 unique users per month, according to comScore. But Weisman says Skittles has managed to underscore a perception that they are "edgy and on the cusp." He adds, "It's easy for candy brands to fulfill that expectation because they're associated with sugar, with a rush."
Mira Schwirtz is a San Francisco-based freelance writer covering the culture and business of technology.
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