Taste the Interweb

Yep, this is another post about the Skittles website redesign. Why? Because I feel like it.

The site launched last week. It took the twitterverse about 4 days (2 business days) to really become abuzz about it. I’m sure the articles in AdRants, AdFreak and every other industry mag helped a bit.

Here’s ten things I wonder about the approach:

1. Did Mars/Skittles/their agency (Skittles for the rest of this post) start listening and/or check the twitter buzz before creating the site? I hope so, but really, before last week, there wasn’t much talk about Skittles (see below picture). Even these past four days there’s not much REAL content about skittles. And by real, I mean comments that aren’t lewd or talk about their new site.
2. It feels like Deja vu of the Modernista site (and a few others). TONS of buzz when it launched. These days? People rarely talk or reference Modernista. Granted, people outside the ad world still have no idea it exists.
3. Did Skittles take into account that a lot of immature people would write inappropriate stuff just to show up? For example, and please DO NOT click if you are easily offended, this tweet that showed up on their “homepage”. (PS – In the last 24 hours there were 80 tweets with this word combination).
4. Twenty-five percent of Skittles.com relies on Twitter Search. What happens when Twitter Search is down? What happens if Twitter decides to shut down or change search? Yes, yes, this can happen to any site, but if I was a major brand, I’d feel more comfortable if the majority of my site was hosted and maintained by yours truly. Or, at least someone I paid big bucks to.
5. According to Quantcast, 42% of the Skittles demo is 17 years old or younger. Yet, to enter their “site” you have to be 13 or older. Hmmm. Seems odd to me, but according to legalese 13 and under is considered a “young child”. Although, according to the info, it does seem like youngin’s were allowed on the old site.
6. They’re using social media / this redesign to connect to their teen audience according to WSJ. Double hmmm.
7. @Skittles is a private, personal account with three tweets and one follower. Did they make any attempt to contact and/or buy that twitter handle? Are they just using us and never plan on participating?
8. Their YouTube Channel is lacking. Three videos? One favorite? Wouldn’t you at least seed with more favorites before launching?
9. Navigating to the “basics” is difficult to impossible. You know, like where can I BUY skittles.
10. Talk of online purchasing is listed in small print under the “Other Gobbledygook” header. Really? You consider my money “other gobbledygook?”? Really?

Skittles Chatter courtesy of WSJ

So yes, while I and a crapload of other advertising/marketing folk are TALKING about Skittles no one is jumping on the bandwagon to BUY Skittles (yet). Personally, I like my gobstoppers much better