Skittles Cozies Up to Social Media†

Candy's Site Is Built on Consumer-Created Content From Twitter, Facebook

Wall Street Journal, March 3, 2009 — For years, Skittles has encouraged consumers to "Taste the Rainbow." Now, the candy brand wants people to "Chat the Rainbow."

Mars Snackfood, maker of the chewy, multicolored candies, launched a new homepage at Skittles.com on Thursday that may represent the closest embrace of social media yet by a mainstream marketer. Instead of a typical product site that highlights information about or videos and games related to a product, Skittles.com features content created by consumers — most of it gleaned from other Web sites.