This is a company that is confident in its product and comfortable with social media. Go to http://skittles.com/ and you’ll see (Gasp!) the results page for a Twitter search on “skittles,” in real time.
The “real” nav bar is a window superimposed over the Twitter page
Especially remarkable considering that the product is much-dissed in literature as a quick sugar high that too often substitutes for real nutrition (going all the way back at least to a Doonesbury strip that has Mike asking incredulously, “Skittles is your DINNER?”–must be 15 years ago). And one post that’s visible on my screen as I write this is about “skittlefisting.” Abig BRAVO to them on the transparency front!
I can’t remember another example of a major corporation saying to the world, “we’re not going to control or filter what you learn about us on our own website, we’ll leave it to the randomness of the world.” The only control the site is exercising is demanding to know the age of a viewer and acknowledgment that the company isn’t responsible for the messages.
For people who’ve never used Twitter, it must be really weird. But then again, among the demographic Skittles most appeals to, Twitter use is probably very widespread.
How did I find out about this? I saw a Twitter post from my friend Patrick Byers over at the Responsible Marketing Blog. There’s apparently a whole #skittles thread running at Twitter (the hashtag allows people to search easily for topics).
Speaking of transparency, why did I put # at the beginning of my headline? My blog feeds automatically into Twitter (and from there to Facebook). So by putting the # at the front of this post’s title, I expect that this post will be on Twitter’s homepage briefly this morning, until it gets knocked down out of sight. As a grassroots marketer, I want my 15 minutes of fame. 
If the goal is to get talked about, they are certainly succeeding. By the time I hit send and went to check on TweetDeck, five new posts had mentioned Skittles in the one minute since my post went live!
Thanks for the insight in this post, Shel. I think what Skittles is doing is very interesting, but from a PR perspective, may lead to a lack of control.
Good to see they had a disclaimer on the site, asking users to register their age, but what if by some chance, Twitter had a crisis today? Would their corp comms be comfortable with the “Twitosphere” ripping their company on their very own website, or do you think they would pull the site?
Then again, when people Tweet inappropriate comments, I don’t think it makes Skittles look as bad as the ‘Tweeter.’
I wonder if this will become a trend or if this will be few and far between.
Risky, but by the looks of things, it is getting a ton of publicity already. Wonder how the mainstream media will cover off on this…
shelhorowitz (Shel Horowitz) // Mar 2, 2009 at 12:24 pm
New blog post: #Skittles Changes Its Home Page to Twitter Search http://tinyurl.com/b7vsh4
shelhorowitz (Shel Horowitz) // Mar 2, 2009 at 1:27 pm
@StephenTiano @Scobelizer I blogged abt #skittles this a.m. 2 let others define yr own website is new, strange. http://tinyurl.com/b7vsh4
RobLongert (RobLongert) // Mar 2, 2009 at 1:29 pm
Check out this post from @shelhorowitz about the #Skittles homepage change http://tinyurl.com/b7vsh4
shelhorowitz (Shel Horowitz) // Mar 2, 2009 at 9:21 pm
@guykawasaki See my post this morning about #skittles, may give at least a little clarity http://tinyurl.com/b7vsh4
Twitter: @shelhorowitz
Today, I noticed they’ve gone a much safer route: Now it’s the Wikipedia entry, which of course is considerably less volatile, though still out of their control.
shelhorowitz (Shel Horowitz) // Mar 9, 2009 at 2:00 pm
#skittles changed homepage fm Twitter 2 Wikipedia (more sensible IMHO), see my comment on my orignal post, http://tinyurl.com/b7vsh4
Twitter: @shelhorowitz
Another blogger highlighted Skittles’ current website, which is now based in Facebook: http://www.cofebuz.com/2009/06/08/the-power-of-not-having-a-website-web-30/