Digital Disruption - Latest Comments in Skittles and Twitter – What’s Missing

Re: Skittles and Twitter – What’s Missing

Craig Ritchie — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 11:11:07 -0000

Agree completely. This is not a good idea, and the fact that they are choosing to "experiment" make it one. Yes, brands should evolve and experiment more in the new digital landscape; no, they should not throw away their identity to do so.

Re: Skittles and Twitter – What’s Missing

David Feldt — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 17:02:39 -0000

The need for innovation vs. the fear of failure that inhibits it is at the
core of of our current global economic scenario.

I agree that the taboo of failure sucks and it certainly does have
significant repercussions.

The current economic scenario is scattered with companies and industries
across this innovation/fear of failure spectrum. On the one extreme you have
GM and auto makers who failed to innovate because of the taboo of failure;
who continued to produce gas-guzzling SUVs and didn't embrace alternative
fuel technologies. On the other extreme you have the financial services
industry who took the innovation thing to the extreme and created complex,
exotic derivative instruments that no-one understood, that no-one could
price and that everyone bought in abundance.

In that context, I guess the entire Skittles thing becomes a non-event.

We're certainly at a global turning point - time to "reboot" everything
including media, advertising and marketing.

Great conversation ...

Re: Skittles and Twitter – What’s Missing

Brian Morrissey — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 16:09:40 -0000

There's of course room for disagreement with the tactical execution. Even people at Agency.com would allow for that. Would it be better if Skittles initially established itself in some organic way in these communities? Certainly.

I was more referring to the general tenor of the negative reactions. Many of them were not very constructive. It was like that Internet thing that makes me cringe to just blurt "FAIL." It's part Internet commenter culture, part advertising backbiting.

As a practical personal matter, the taboo on failures sucks. Nobody will discuss stuff that came up short. Instead, they just want to talk about their successes, which are dwarfed by the down the middle mediocrity of most of their work. Lots of industries face this dilemma. Risk-taking is not a part of my own industry, media. Look how that's working out.