(From Brandweek)
Last year, Skittles decided it would jump all over the newest internet craze: social media. Its site revolved completely around Twitter feeds, Facebook updates, and other forms of social media shoutouts. Among other problems, funny little punkers begin punkin’ the Skittles brand by posting inappropriate content coupled with the word “skittles”, which would pop up on Skittles’ site. Although that was a significant problem, it wasn’t the only or biggest problem. The biggest problem is that people are growing weary of social media. It is overused, and although it can be a nice supplement, it becomes like that one song on the radio that at first you love, and then you get bored of, and then you can never listen to again.
Skittles, however, being a clever brand, has felt the wearied waves wafting from their customers, and have aborted mission “overdo the social media thing”. Instead, they have decided to do what is most likely to build real brand power, and create a site with a whole culture about it at http://www.skittles.com. The new site still uses social media, but instead of just prostituting the asset, it uses it to help create a culture of total silliness and goofiness, but occasional hilariousness. Which is really right in line with their whole big idea in marketing, (judging by their commercials). This makes for an extremely consistent marketing message, whether or not the message makes me want to eat more skittles, I am still undecided.
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"The biggest problem is that people are growing weary of social media."
ReplyDeleteYou really think so? I disagree. Social media seems to be new content consistently, and thus people want to share it. I doubt boring ads or overused campaigns wouldn't make it through the filter of social media.
What do you think Dalan?
I take the example of Twitter. Lately Twitter has become a place where people create a guise or false profile and just ad every friend they possibly can (at least, in my test of Twitter, that has been what has happened. I get several new followers every time I post, but those followers are 99.9% of the time just trying to get more people to view their feed). Because so many people are "falsely" using social media (the same thing is happening with Facebook, although not to the same extent) it is creating a whole lot of online clutter. Where there is clutter, there are wearied consumers (like the window of a Mexican tienda).
ReplyDeleteNow that being said, I feel like there are effective and exciting ways to use social media (like Tasti D-Lite, Carnival Cruises, or Skittles). And, of course, this is all my opinion, not online marketing fact, and I have been wrong before (once, it was a weird feeling).
Links to those effective refrences:
ReplyDeleteTasti D-Lite
http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/news/nontraditional/e3i9fb53b6e7c4173def262e58d96c4a90b
Carnival
http://collegeventures.blogspot.com/2010/01/guerilla-marketing-is-out-of-control.html
Skittles
http://collegeventures.blogspot.com/2010/02/skittles-is-still-weird-but-smarter.html
Here is a link to a viral marketing video from a while back. Thought you might find it interesting.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.wired.com/underwire/2008/05/levis-jeans-beh/
Take a look at http://www.wired.com/underwire/2008/05/levis-jeans-beh/. How would you classify this type of advertisting?
ReplyDeleteI call it HOLY COW marketing. I think most people would use more colorful language, but the point is the same. Make people freak out, and then watch as they tweet about it, post a status on their facebook, share it on their smart phones, text about it, etc. I think it can be good, but along the same lines as this article, it seems like it is getting nice and overused. There was a guy who jumped into a huge Reese's Cup off a bridge, and what used to make people say, "OMG" now barely turns heads.
ReplyDeleteYea, Twitter is unique that is for sure. Many people love wearing the badge of "number of followers" so they will do anything to get a follower or even sell their product. I think Twitter is still up in the air for working or not...
ReplyDeleteHowever, Twitter is just one site out of so many other social media sites. I don't think it's fair to group everyone else with one site that people don't quite understand how to use... yet. Check this out http://www.flickr.com/photos/fredcavazza/2564571564/ That is the real social media landscape.
I doubt people are getting weary of Wikipedia, LinkedIn, Facebook, or even Blogspot(which ironically we happen to be using right now!) But hey I've been wrong before... Once!