CCT356+Online+Ad+Critique


 * Company: Skittles **
 * Campaign: Taste the Rainbow **

Econsultancy.com describes Skittles’ target market as “Gender agnostic teens, ages 13-17 who frequently consume macrosnacks”; Jon M Bishop—professor of digital PR at the University of Westminster—referred to the target market as “tweens, teens and colorful candy-lovers”; A visit to skittles.com returned not the corporate website that I expected but a “social media experiment” as part of their long-running “Taste the Rainbow” advertising campaign. The campaign, unlike its now defunct creators //D’Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles//, was originally created in 1994 and has survived for almost two decades; this longevity can be credited to its ability to continuously adapt to the changing business environment and customer demands. After a brief hiatus, the campaign was revived in 2009 as a result of the enterprising actions Skittles made by capitalizing upon the promotional potential of social media and the Interne. The intention of the revised campaign is unclear; however Bishop suggested the following marketing objectives: brand awareness, improved site traffic with returning visitors, & eventual boost in sales. He also listed the following PR objectives: generate buzz, get published, engage in conversation, & spur user generated content. Personally, I am more inclined to believe that the revised campaign was designed entirely from a public-relations perspective as a strategy for market development because the techniques they employed, like using Twitter (a social network with the majority of users within ages 25 and 55), were not geared towards their typical ‘tween’ or ‘teenage’ market. My first encounter with this campaign was when a friend shared [|this YouTube video] on //Facebook// in the summer of 2011. The most recent videos are part of an online campaign titled ‘Touch the Rainbow’; at the start of these videos, a narrator prompts the viewer to engage with the video by touching a particular part of their screen. A carefully constructed interactive skit, which depends on viewer engagement to be effective, follows after this prelude. The intended result is a funny, interactive video that compels the viewer to share it online. The earliest evidence of Skittles’ use of the Internet and social media is the 2009 website design change that dumbfounded the advertising world, blogosphere, and online communities. On March 2nd 2009, the skittles.com homepage was transformed into a live Twitter feed displaying every result for the keyword “skittles”; it also had a navigation bar that allowed visitors browse Skittles’ “Vids” (a link to their //YouTube// channel), “Friends” (a link to their //Facebook// fan page) etc ([|Lake]). This event was covered by numerous online publications ranging from [|mashable.com] to the [|CNET news website]. Whether this campaign worked can be answered using either a qualitative means through which its success can be measured, or a quantitative means. Quantitatively, the 2009 homepage change generated a reported 1332% increase in website traffic on March 3rd ([|Hitwise]). The ‘Touch The Rainbow’ videos on //Youtube// have a combined [|total of almost 10 million views]; these figures allude to the exceeding success of the campaign. However, the qualitative measurements are not as clear. The general arguments for those who claim that the 2009 campaign was a failure are that the users plagued the website with spam, inappropriate messages, and profanity thus damaging Skittles’ reputation ([|Pros In Training], [|No Pork Pies]); Fast Company magazine even [|wrote an article stating] that this abuse forced Skittles’ to redesign the website the next day, which they actually did. The proponents of the campaigns success maintain that the social media integration: encouraged consumer participation and interaction, improved website statistics, and got people talking about & sharing things about Skittles ([|O'Brien]). The CNET article also stated in 2009 that the buzz was only temporary and that the “provocative appeal will wear off quickly”; however, the controversy associated with the Skittles brand has stuck. Skittles was able to attract a new market segment it lacked before, further evidenced by creation of Adult-themed user generated content like this [|video]. In summation, relating to the marketing objectives and PR objectives, I can confidently state that the ‘Taste the Rainbow’ campaign is a continued success; most especially, it has been useful towards market development and has brought the customer awareness of and interaction with the Skittles brand to an all time high.


 * WORKS CITED **

Bishop, J. M. Class Lecture. Digital PR. University of Westminster: London, UK. 16 Mar. 2009. Online at []

Eaton, K., “Hack the Rainbow: Social Media Abuse Forces Skittles Web Site Redesign.” //Fast Company//. Masuento Ventures, LLC, 4 Feb. 2010. Web. 3 Feb. 2012. Online at []

Lake, C., “Skittles launches an amazing social media campaign.” //Econsultancy.// E-Consultancy.com, 9 Mar. 2009. Web. 3 Feb. 2012. Online at []

Leberecht, T., “Skittles – the end of the homepage (as we know it)?” //CNET News//. CBS Interactive, 3 Mar. 2009. Web. 3 Feb. 2012. Online at []

Lee, A., “ Skittles don’t know what they’ve got themselves into.” //NoPorkPies//. n.p, 2 Mar. 2009. Web. 3 Feb. 2012. Online at []

Nudd, T., “The Most Raunchy Skittles Commerical You Will Ever See (NSFW).” //AdFreak//. AdWeek, 23 Jul. 2011. Web. 3 Feb. 2012. Online at []

O’Brien, C. “Skittles Embraces Social Media In A Big Way.” //The Future of Ads//, n.p., n.d. Web. 3 Feb. 2012. Online at []

ProsInTraining. “Skittles: Failure to Plan.” //Strategic Social Media: J412 at the University of Oregon//. Kelli Matthews, 19 May 2011. Web. 3 Feb. 2012. Online at []

Schroeder, S., “Skittles Site Receives and Extreme Social Makeover.” //Mashable Business.// Mashable, Inc, 2 Mar. 2009. Web. 3 Feb. 2012. Online at []

“Skittles homepage.” //Skittles.com//. n.d. Web. 3 Feb. 2012. Online at []

“Skittles Traffic Increases 1332% In One Day.” //Hitwise.com//, 6 Mar. 2009. Web. 3 Fed. 2012. Online at []


 * Company: Tipp-Ex **


 * Campaign: The TippExperience **

Tipp-Ex was stated to only be popular in European markets at the time this //YouTube// campaign was launched, also majority of their market were thought to be students. It seems that the purpose of this campaign was to generate buzz for a product becoming very unpopular with the decline of the paper usage in organizations worldwide. [|//Buzzman//]—the creators of this campaign—state that they were challenged specifically with online promotion of the whiteout pocket mouse. Given the nature of the campaign and the context within which it is placed, I believe the target audience is “male of any ethnicity between the ages 18-45. I discovered the campaign only when searching for material to use for this assignment, however, the campaign launched in 2010. As one of the most interactive online advertisements ever created, the //TippExperience// starts with this video titled “[|NSFW. A hunter shoots a bear!]", aptly titled like a typical YouTube video, here the video starts with a hunter in the woods being filmed by his buddy while they make casual conversation about women. Suddenly, a bear creeps up behind their tent and his buddy warns that a bear is behind him & frantically prompts him to shoot the bear—at this point, two annotations pop up giving the viewer options to either “shoot the bear” or “don’t shoot the bear”, whichever one is clicked leads to this [|full-flash page] that mimics the regular //YouTube// interface. The hunter then turns to the camera expressing his concerns with shooting the bear then he reaches out of the video frame into a //Tippex// advertisement in the sidebar and grabs the ‘pocket mouse white out’. He then uses it to erase the word “shoots” from the title and tells users to re-write the story by typing literally anything in the space between “A hunter” and “a bear” and watch the outcome. There are a number of words that make out for hilarious comedy like “ride”, “erases”, “dates” and “tickles”, however it is rumored that the producers created over 50 possible endings with the campaign. They even address the more profane, perverted verbs people were inclined to try like “fucks”. More so, one of the perceived shortcomings is the confined versatility of the campaign i.e. not all verbs can have a relevant video, however—being consistent with online conventions—a 404 error video was also produced to address any unadressed verbs ([|Scott]) This level of interactivity and capitalization upon the vast demographic included in the YouTube community and digital technology is one above the rest, and I believe this made the campaign very successful. In terms of statistics, [|according to the creators], 36 hours after the campaign was released it received over a million //YouTube// views, over a hundred thousand //Facebook// shares, and up to 1 tweet per second even garnering attention from celebrities with Twitter accounts like Alyssa Milano & Ricky Martin. Today, the campaign has received over 35 million //YouTube// views; an enormous amount of coverage from conventional media outlets and online outlets alike, all of whom have hailed the campaign as one of the greatest viral campaigns of all time. It has also reached over 217 countries, amassing a virality rate of over 500%. // Buzzman // reports an increase in //Tippex// sales of 30% in Europe.


 * WORKS CITED **

Bamieh, M., “NSFW: Tipp-Ex Youtube Take-over Campaign – Learn Social Media.” //ThoughtPick//. n.p., 15 Sep. 2010. Web. 3 Feb. 2012. []

Scott, J., “This Week’s Best YouTube Ad Campaign: Tipp-Ex Impresses with Custom Interactive YouTube Video”. //ReelSEO: The Online Video Business Guide//. ReelVideo, LLC, Sep. 2011. Web. 3 Feb. 2012. Online at []

“TippExperience Case Study.” //Buzzman.fr//. Buzzman, n.d. Web. 3 Feb. 2012. Online at []

“TippExperience.” //YouTube.com//. Google Inc, 10 Aug. 2010. Web. 3 Feb. 2012. Online at []