Mars, bringer of warnings

Holst on there a minute. I'm not posting twice in one day really. I'm just thieving interesting content from other people's blogs again. I think I may be the only one, and I am so ashamed.

Anyway, over that now. Kevin Dunne's views on marketing are never less than a kernel of common sense wrapped up in a layer of cop on, and all covered in a creamy coating of smart. Go visit and see.


Like when he points to the hideously stupid thinking from Mars - of all people - that made them put a cease and desist order on digital agency Poke, for daring to dream up a website called Snckrz! where people could have fun with the Snickers logo.

Don't look for it any more. It's not there. I'll let Kevin tell you why.

Skittles wrasslin' with Twits

Skittles webspace update here at Brand Republic. Are Skittles struggling with Twitter's open-ended personality, or milking it for all the colours of the rainbow? I dunno.

Thanks to Christian Hughes for drawing my attention to it. Via Twitter haha.

Websites: yours v Skittles

Fragmentation: it needn't affect the overall taste.
Pic thanks to Dirty Bunny.

Skittles has gone the next step. They've pretty much done away with their 'own' website and just harnessed themselves into a Facebook page.

Kind of.

If you go looking at their pics page, it's hosted on Flickr. Their videos? A link to a Skittles page on - you guessed it - Youtube. Click on the Chatter link and you're straight to their Twitter page. Even the links to product information bring you to Wikipedia.

They've put themselves in a very interesting place: totally visible at the centre of a very public web of communications.

It's awesome, it's obvious and it's a brave step for Mars nonetheless, embracing as it does the underlying ethos of 'social' in the term social media. There are almost 600, 000 fans on the Facebook page alone. Ten more people commented on the Skittles Twitter page in the time it took me to type this paragraph. Ok, I'm not the fastest typist, but you still have to be a bit impressed, right? Right?




Yes you do. Because Skittles are allowing unflattering comment too. Look at the top of the thread above. 'wtf is with the skittles???!!! i HATE skittles!!!!' Even antisocial has a social element in it, something not lost even on the once notoriously reclusive Mars family. So at the risk of repeating myself again for the 400th time this month, watch how brands are using social media to leverage consumer opinions. People said Bring Back Wispa was a once off, and maybe it was. Here's another in Skittles. Who's next? It could be you, or one of your clients' brands. Why not, exactly? Why not?