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=AD CRITIQUES.=

**Skittles Redefined**: How to Drown a Man.

Skittle ads in general have always invited its viewers to “taste the rainbow”. Tasting the rainbow however, was not enough to generate the engagement that the creatives at Skittles sought from its customers in the long run. Skittles needed to be put towards a more creative use without being too disruptive.

The Skittles Facebook online campaign was an effort to connect with customers in a way that would strengthen brand promise even more. The creatives were not trying to advertise solely for profit as the ads did not call to customers immediately to spend any money. However, the online advertisement on Facebook sought to raise brand awareness and interactivity.

An effective way to do this was through the interactive Facebook campaign that featured David Phoenix pitched against the Skittle mob, in a challenge if won by the mob, would submerge him in up to 3.7 million skittles. “The user interaction on this campaign was enviable – fans got to add more skittles into the pot simply by clicking, then via a live stream you could see your skittles getting poured on top of the challenger.” (Harbison) This campaign made creative use of the ‘like’ feature on Facebook as a tool for real time interaction with their target market. Mars Snackfood, the parent company of Skittles commented that, “it redesigned the site[skittles.com] to better connect with its core teenage audience, which spends a lot of time using social media.” (Steel) This gives insight to the exact make-up of Skittle’s target market and audience. Facebook as the platform for the online ad is very effective in reaching out to this age group. David phoenix, a macho archetypal personality, helped the authenticity of the campaign. The youtube link below gives the viewers an insight as to who he is and why he is a worthy challenger or opponent. media type="youtube" key="j9G1glAQnFw" height="315" width="560"media type="youtube" key="iMmx2vqpIc8" height="360" width="640"

According to the author at digitalBuzz, “the idea is around broadcasting a live interactive event where David Phoenix challenges the Skittles mob to try and submerge him to death by way of skittles. Each person who logs onto the Facebook app adds hundreds more Skittles to the next drop (which happens every 15 mins).” (Hepburn) It seems that the point is to get as many people talking about Skittles online and off. By attracting the core audience and engaging them in an interactive way skittles managed to successfully reached its target audience and more through its creative use of the the social media platform.

The Skittles campaign first debuted with youtube Videos of David Phoenix, showing off his manliness and challenging the “Skittle mob” to an online challenge. This caught wind fast as the campaign itself did not last for 24hours but only took 10hours for Phoenix to be covered in skittles. The mob won. The technique was very simple, “-- fans got to add more skittles into the pot simply by clicking, then via a live stream you could see your skittles getting poured on top of the challenger.” (Harbison)

The Campaign was effective as it raised Skittles over 22 million new fans, creating an awareness about the company in less than 24 hours, an enviable feat that most companies want to attain. Although, some criticism of the campaign is that it fell short since all users had to do was to log in and click on the skittles fan page to increase the number of skittles deposited on Pheonix. However, as earlier mentioned, perhaps this may have been exactly how the creatives at Skittles intended the campaign to be-- whacky and fun with seemingly no agenda except awareness.

The ad campaign accomplishes what Rob stokes writes is the work of online advertising. He Observes that, “The main objective of advertising is to increase sales by raising brand awareness online. It can also be more interactive and therefore less disruptive than traditional advertising or non-interactive online advertising, as users can choose to engage with the advert or not.”(32) Clicking or liking the skittles Facebook fan page was an easy way to generate more awareness about the company without being disruptive. This is the ultimate goal of online advertising and Skittles as a company, embodies this.

Works Cited Harbison, Niall, and Lauren Fisher. "20 of the most innovative Facebook campaigns ever." //Simply Zesty - Building your brand through social media//. Simply Zesty, 7 Feb. 2011. Web. 8 Apr. 2012. < [] >.

Hepburn, Aden. " The Skittles MOB vs David Phoenix | Digital Buzz Blog."//Digital Buzz Blog | Digital Campaigns, Online Marketing, Social & More.//. DIgital Buzz Blog, 19 Oct. 2010. Web. 8 Apr. 2012. < [] >.

Steel, Emily. "Skittles Cozies Up to Social Media - WSJ.com." //Business News & Financial News - The Wall Street Journal - Wsj.com//. THE Wall Street Journal, 3 Mar. 2009. Web. 9 Apr. 2012. < [] >.

The creatives at Molson Canadian launched their online campaign at a strategic time in online and social media advertising. Companies had begun warming up to this approach with most executives believing that social media was just as important as traditional mass media. The campaign employed Facebook as the platform in reaching its targeted audience of those aged 18-24. The promotional campaign asked university and college students to post their partying pictures in a contest for the title of top party school in Canada. The prize was a spring break trip to Cancun for the winner and four friends, worth about $8,000. The campaign was up on Facebook for a few weeks in November 2007.
 * The Molson Canadian Nation Campus Challenge**

The campaign was specific to its target audience as students from universities all over responded to the campaign by uploading their pictures up on the Molson Fan page. The campaign had an interactive format as a molson Canadian Rep named “Ali” answered student's questions back and forth about the rules of the contest. In one post, Ali responded to a student, Aaron about the details of the contest, “It's not up to us to decide the top 10 party schools... it is determined by you and the other members of the group. If you want Dalhousie and McGill in the top 3, then tell your friends that go to those schools to start posting pics! The school with the most party pics takes the title.” (Molson Canadian) In the above response by Ali, it is made even clear, the primary target audience of the online campaign. The interactivity of the online initiative kept university students even more engaged online and off. It is most likely that these students would have been drinking none other but Molson at these parties perhaps, in order to increase their chances of winning the prize trip. This is the part of the social media campaign that was not fully taken into consideration by the creatives at Molson. The social uproar that followed took toll on the campaign. The stakeholders would include academics, parents, the dean’s of the institutions. As a result of the backlash of the Molson social media campaign, the company ultimately lost control over the brand. More effort was put into fixing the general impression held by majority of stakeholders a s they called foul play. Many questioned the ethics, values and business methods championed by Molson. “A Molson spokesman said they wanted to show school spirit not encourage drinking. They had over 200 photos submitted but none are viewable.” (Thaeler)



University administrators slammed the brand stating that “ the brewer's online marketing campaign could be harmful for students seeking jobs if a potential employer discovered their raucous partying poses on Facebook.” (Strauss) Overall the campaign had good traits of a seemingly successful online marketing campaign. It had a good social platform, interactivity and engagement. However, the downside to social marketing and campaigning is the danger of an unanticipated negative market response to a campaign. The company ended up having to end the contest a week early after receiving complaints that the company promoted binge drinking. The Ad was effective in putting its message out there and getting people especially its target audience talking about and buying Molson. As the age old saying goes, “no publicity is bad publicity” however, the company is now exemplary in epitomizing the pitfalls of social media advertising.

Works Cited STRAUSS, MARINA. "Molson photo contest brews up anger - The Globe and Mail." Theglobeandmail.com. The Globe and Mail, 27 Nov. 2007. Web. 15 Apr. 2012. < [] >.

THAELER, JANET. "Facebook Marketing Stunt Backfires." Internet Marketing News | Marketing Pilgrim â. Marketing Pilgrim, 26 Nov. 2007. Web. 15 Apr. 2012. < [] >.

"Molson canadian." [|www.facebook.com]. Molson Canadian, 15 June 2007. Web. 15 Apr. 2012. < [|www.facebook.com/MolsonCanadian] >

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