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Much buzz, and such hatin’ about the Skittles site, or anti-site, or social panel, or whatever you want to call it, and far be it from me to be left out: yet I’m not going to dwell here on whether or not Agency.com ripped off Modernista!‘s idea; that’s like bitching about whether or not Skittles ripped off jellybeans as a candy.
I’m also not going to reiterate how brave they are to cede control of the brand to the social masses, or whether it was a good idea to do so. My points are more basic: they are smart to use what already exists, and it’s working. And to the haters: you’re jealous and everybody knows it.
First: rather than trying to create their own, Skittles admits what Mark Ott and I have been saying for some time now: you can’t out-(social site name here) (social site name here). They are fishing where the the fish are, that’s to say, where audiences are already, hmmm, socializing and using today’s tools of the web. How many times have you thought, “crap, I need a social presence online”? Well, there already IS a social presence online, silly. The Skittles site just takes this to its logical endpoint. It’s brilliant.
Second: it’s working. I checked a few mins ago and the Facebook page has over 600,000 fans already. I am seeing friends on my FB friending Skittles who would not put one in their mouths on a bet. Do any kind of search for Skittles today, and presto. It’s HOT. And you know you’re there when everyone from traditional ad/pr guys to readers of Techcrunch start picking you apart.
I’ll say it again: most of the negative blogging about it is really an acute case of sour, ah, Skittles.
And this: If we’d done it for one of our clients and they/we were reaping such a buzz, I’d be tickled to death. I imagine they’d be, too.
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Well said, Kidd. I’m just suprised a company as large as Skittles ran with this idea. We’re always pitching “crazy” ideas like this, but most of the time, it’s just “too out there” or there isn’t “enough control” over the content. Forget all that and realize people are gonna talk about it anyway. Why not capitalize on it? Hats off to Skittles and the agency with the impressively convincing person that got Skittles to move on it ;)
Kidd, rocks.
And, ditto that, Brad.
Good on Skittles for “getting it”.
Friggin’ brilliant.
agreed! and i love how the site displayed in the background is synced up with main nav (i.e. “Friends” displays facebook, “Chatter” displays Twitter) - awesome, smart, engaging
hummm…it was brilliant when Modernista! did it. I still think that Modernista!‘s site is by far one of the smartest sites out there today, but to have it copied so blatantly? I would have to say the skittles site falls short for me. They could have used Modernista!‘s idea as inspiration and built upon it to create something better, but when it comes down to it, wether it’s working or not, it is a rip off. Not bitching, just saying. And I am jealous that I didn’t think of a site concept as brilliant as Modernista!‘s.