I just found out (not surprisingly, through Twitter) that Skittles turned their website inside out (so to say, in my words).

They replaced their content pages by what others are saying about them: their twitter stream (live search for #skittles), their entry at Wikipedia, their friends at Facebook and more (videos at Youtube, pictures at Flickr, you get the idea).

The own Skittles content is reduced to just one floating content banner, providing minimal information (as if it were a IAB banner box) and also functions as “glue” between all linked social sites.

The linked content seems not to be filtered, the Twitter feed at least displays profanity just as entered.

So what is this?

• A stunt which will last just for a day or so
• Crowd-sourcing at its most extreme
• The end of internet marketing as we know it…

In other words, is this indeed a brave move or just plain stupid? The Twitter jury is still out…

Update:

1. By now they have removed the twitter stream as home backdrop, got a bit too hot maybe.
2. It appears that Modernista was far ahead with this concept: Modernista! letting others define its identity about a year ago.

Many more related articles by Zemanta…

• The New Skittles Website Is A Twitter Search For “Skittles” (laughingsquid.com)
• Skittles.com: Interweb the rainbow. Taste the Rainbow. (tsurch.com)
• Is Skittles.com a glimpse of the business model for Twitter? (RexBlog.com)
• Stop doing websites (sharemarketing.wordpress.com)
• Skittles.com All Our Base are Belong to You (pistachioconsulting.com)
• A funny thing happens when you take down your website (thisisherd.com)
• Skittles Site Receives an Extreme Social Makeover (mashable.com)
• Will you buy more Skittles today? (cmswatch.com)
• Hey! Skittles! Get Off of My Cloud! (technologizer.com)
• Skittles + social media = priceless (wisdump.com)
• Skittles Goes Modernista! With A Distributed Experience (darmano.typepad.com)
• Skittles Puts Twitter Comments on Homepage (shoppingblog.com)
• Skittles.com is the worst thing to ever happen to social media branding (thisisgoingtobebig.com)
• Skittles Maker Invents Perfect Depression Advertising [Recessionomics] (gawker.com)

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