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By on March 9, 2009

Skittles Social Media Campaign Increases Traffic 1332% in One Day

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Say what you want about the Skittles experiment with social media, the campaign was effective in increasing the rainbow candy’s web site presence.

Hitwise reports a 1332% increase in web visitors on March 3rd.

Alexa–put the rotten tomatoes away–confirms this jump in traffic:

alexa-skittles

And Google Trends saw a spike in the number of people searching for “skittles.”


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20 comments on “Skittles Social Media Campaign Increases Traffic 1332% in One Day”

  1. Andrey Milyan Says:

    March 9th, 2009 at 9:15 am

    With so much buzz in the online marketing blogosphere this is not at all surprising. There is no doubt Skittles got us talking about its campaign and visiting their site, no doubt contributing to the traffic spike. Did they reach the right audience though?

  2. RouletteOnlineGames Says:

    March 9th, 2009 at 9:15 am

    wow, big numbers

  3. Andy Beal Says:

    March 9th, 2009 at 9:49 am

    @Andrey – isn’t that the big question with any big numbers from social media? I can’t ever say that the homepage of Digg helps me reach the right audience, but I still wouldn’t turn it down. :-)

  4. Chris Hansen Says:

    March 9th, 2009 at 9:52 am

    The social media experiment is an obvious success—as is the creative that went along with it—but did that traffic convert to sales?

    Chris Hansen’s last blog post..Facebook Connect Now Live On MarketGreener

  5. Martin Maybruck Says:

    March 9th, 2009 at 10:09 am

    Traffic is one thing but the real question is how did it affect Skittles’ sales? Does anyone know this answer?

    I’m still stunned that after thinking up this marketing stunt they didn’t even bother registering Skittles with a Twitter account…they could learn from Zappos.

  6. Tom Lindstrom Says:

    March 9th, 2009 at 11:41 am

    All traffic is welcome, there is never enough of it.However, I do prefer highly targeted traffic if possible.The problem with the traffic from social media sites (especially stumbleupon and digg) is that the traffic does not convert into sales.I would also like to know how much skittles sales increased.

    Tom Lindstrom’s last blog post..Earn Extra Money With Data Entry

  7. Frank Reed Says:

    March 9th, 2009 at 12:08 pm

    As much as I have read about Skittles since this whole thing I haven’t purchased any. Oh and my kids, who do like them, didn’t even know this whole thing happened.

    Great job of making all of us industry types stand up and take notice but in the end did you really care about the candy or the campaign?

    Frank Reed’s last blog post..Information Tsunami is Real

  8. Whitney McNamara Says:

    March 9th, 2009 at 12:21 pm

    Even putting aside the (entirely valid) ROI question, I’m still left wondering about the overall strategy here. A one time traffic spike is nice enough, but it looks like their traffic is working its way back down to its prior level.

    This feels to me like a sideshow hitting down for a couple of days, rather than a strategy; it’s a gimmick, in the sense that it’s non-reproducible and doesn’t appear to lay any foundations for developing their online presence. As the novelty of “oh, look, skittles.com is (twitter | facebook | wikipedia | flickr | youtube) today” wears off, you’re left with something that offers even less reason to visit than a standard corp. product site. There is literally no “there” there.

  9. Tomas Gonsorcik Says:

    March 9th, 2009 at 12:46 pm

    Please, someone release the list of top 10 referrals to www.skittles.com into public domain, so that we can have a straight talk about where this ‘impressive’ traffic is coming from.

  10. Pipe fittings Says:

    March 9th, 2009 at 9:15 pm

    I can’t ever say that the homepage of Digg helps me reach the right audience, but I still wouldn’t turn it down.

  11. Web Marketing Therapy » Blog Archive » Skittlegate: Tasting the Rainbow of Social Media Flavors Says:

    March 10th, 2009 at 12:25 am

    [...] payoff of a bold move like this is all the BUZZ it’s generated – Skittles reportedly saw a 1332% increase in web visitors in one [...]

  12. RBL Says:

    March 10th, 2009 at 1:18 pm

    Accolades are appropriate. But drawing conclusions is premature.

    The campaign creative is brilliant — that is, creating a small overlay that leverages the top Web 2.0 services. Brilliant, and cost effective, too. No wheels being reinvented here. And not the usual me-too stuff one would expect from mainstream marketers.

    Now they’re collecting lots of eyeballs that they can market to going forward. I’m willing to bet they are brainstorming calls to action that will drive sales, and will start implementing these once they collect a sufficient number of friends in the network.

  13. joel Says:

    March 10th, 2009 at 1:44 pm

    I don’t think a onetime spike is any measure of success at all. A drawing for a free ShamWow!® would have drawn just as many visitors and would have cost just $19.95 plus $7.95 shipping to implement.

    joel’s last blog post..Social media noobs, gurus, and hardboiled egg recipes

  14. Planting Seeds – Cultivate your web presence to grow your brand online » Blog Archive » Twtpoll: Skittles results Says:

    March 10th, 2009 at 9:21 pm

    [...] on Skittles for trying. The buzz created was interesting to watch. Did it sell more candy? Well, it did in one case at least. Will it have a long term effect? The [...]

  15. Chaunna Brooke Says:

    March 11th, 2009 at 12:37 am

    for many programmers and web developers this web traffic really helps. for me as a writer i also find earnings because of this business. well, i also have my own site now.

  16. skittles tasting success with latest social media experiment? « The Side Note Says:

    March 11th, 2009 at 12:35 pm

    [...] Marketing Pilgrim wrote a post recently stating that the Skittles Web site traffic experienced “a 1332% increase in web visitors on March 3rd.”  Pretty impressive considering only one day had passed since Skittles launched this social media experience. [...]

  17. Search Engine Marketing News - March 10, 2009 | SageRock Digital Marketing Blog Says:

    March 11th, 2009 at 9:35 pm

    [...] Skittles Social Media Campaign Increases Traffic 1332% in One Day Say what you want about the Skittles experiment with social media, the campaign was effective in increasing the rainbow candy’s web site presence. [...]

  18. Is Twitter Worth The Time To Take Serious? | TopBusinessReviews.com Says:

    March 13th, 2009 at 3:24 pm

    [...] this Marketing Pilgrim article, we find that Skittles increased traffic to their site by 1332% due to their Twitter-site campaign. [...]

  19. Skittles.com - sosiaalinen webbi potenssiin kaksi « Tommilla on asiaa Says:

    March 17th, 2009 at 1:20 am

    [...] aiheesta puhutaan ja sivu saa kävijöitä. Julkaisupäivänään Skittles.com -sivuston liikenne kasvoi 1332%. Sosiaalista mediaa seuraavissa piireissä veikkailaan, että Skittlesin teko jää [...]

  20. basmin Says:

    March 30th, 2009 at 9:18 am

    thank you, this article was a little revealing about social media

    basmin’s last blog post..Kampanye Damai Pemilu Indonesia 2009