Skittles

[Mark Comerford]

The skittles online campaign has now had time for the initial dust to settle. They have now pulled the site and replaced it. What is your view? Fail or success?
http://skittles.co.uk

[Jamie Burke]

Sorry about the delay on this one. Busy busy busy.

Well I have to be careful as Mars are a client of ours but I agree with what Tom Nixon said in NMA I think it was brave and definitely made me think of Skittles as fun and risk taking. I would debate whether that makes me want to buy more of them but it put them front of mind for a week.

It was a stunt with a very short life. It got a big hit but didn't build any relationships and was fairly short sighted. What next? We are always trying to move clients away from the old habits of campaigns and into something more meaningful. We don't always achieve it.

Conclusion: would have been a nice start for a long engagement strategy. who knows maybe there is one waiting around the corner but they are making me wait for the call after a great first date! Will it ever come?

[Mark Comerford]

A couple of things: What does "campaign" mean? It usually means "to appear in different media across a specific time frame." Now, social media disrupts this. There is no specific time frame as the long tail and the durability of digital means that there is no finite time frame. So in Skittles case, the long term effects are ongoing in a way that traditional campaigns are not.
You say: It was a stunt with a very short life.
I say: No such thing any more.

Personally I am still not sure whether or not it was/is a sucess or failure, but think there is an important discussion in there.
And thanks for replying bty :-)
/Mark

[Jamie Burke]

What I am referring to is levels of engagement. To catch my attention is one thing but to begin a relationship is another thing entirely.

To be literal; you can attend the same event as me, you shout and draw my attention, but do I connect with you or simply recall you were there? The two experiences are two very different things entirely.

We can use social media simply as another means to interrupt / broadcast or to be far more constructive. Will I ever really care about a small foods product... probably not. But do I want to support something CONTINOUSLY anarchic... probably... if out of nothing other than shear boredom... so as long as I don't feel like another install, view, share metric to justify something other than spam fine.

Social media is about communities comprised of individuals surrounding a purpose no matter how momentary. As soon as I feel part of a mass figure to justify a PR department's retainer I stop caring. Is there a shelf life? Absolutely! I am discussing this because this is my profession. Do you think that in 12 months the consumer will remember this or the Cadburys Gorilla Ad when they are deciding what confectionary they are buying when pissed after a kebab?

Lets not fool ourselves the days of a £60k brand planning day at JWT are gone. The consumer and the purchase cycle is far more complex than relying on the editor of Maxim and their 'discerning' taste.

Mark Comerford said:

A couple of things: What does "campaign" mean? It usually means "to appear in different media across a specific time frame." Now, social media disrupts this. There is no specific time frame as the long tail and the durability of digital means that there is no finite time frame. So in Skittles case, the long term effects are ongoing in a way that traditional campaigns are not.
You say: It was a stunt with a very short life.
I say: No such thing any more.

Personally I am still not sure whether or not it was/is a sucess or failure, but think there is an important discussion in there.
And thanks for replying bty :-)
/Mark

[Jamie Burke]

Just re-read that last bit and I'm not even sure what the rant about Maxim was. Must remember not to reply when arriving home drunk on red wine. :) hehe

I'm surprised nobody else had anything else on this. Shame on you!