Give the rainbow
Wrigley, a Subsidiary of Mars Inc.
Issue 40 | September 2016
Agency
adam&eveDDB
Creative Team
Chief Creative Officer Ben Priest Executive Creative Directors Ben Tollett Richard Brim Creatives Matt Fitch Mark Lewis
Production Team
Integrated Producer Maebh Kelly Experiential Producer Emilie Verlander Head of Design Alex Fairman Content Production Company cain&abel
Other Credits
Clients Rankin Carroll Vice President Marketing, Europe Daniel Newell Confections Marketing Manager Charlotte Kerr Brand Manager Project Manager Caroline Tripp Managing Partner Fiona McArthur Account Director Brittany Lippett Account Manager Matt Dankis Joint Head of Planning Jessica Lovell Senior Planner David Mortimer Media agency Mediacom Media planner Lindsey Jordan Eloise Huntingford
Date
June 2016
Background
As an impulse purchase, Skittles' communications are designed to keep the brand top of mind. Usually this is done with TV, but as young adults become harder to reach through that channel alone, new ways were needed to make connections.
Idea
When people think of Skittles, they think of the rainbow. It's in the "Taste the rainbow" slogan, it's on the packaging, it's even seen in the colours of the sweets themselves. It's the brand's most powerful and distinctive asset, but there's a day when it needs to play second fiddle to another rainbow – Pride in London day on June 25th.
Other brands supporting Pride usually adopt the rainbow. Skittles went the other way – monotone for the day, with special one-off colourless packaging and product – in order to allow Pride's rainbow to take, er, pride of place.
Skittles announced its initiative with a letter in the press, an animated video online, and a float during the march. It also took its rainbow off social channels and any digital OOH screens.
Results
- Skittles gesture of support received over 30 million impressions in one week, with a cost per impression of just 0.1p
- It was seen and talked about in over 80 countries and 339 cities
- Pride even honoured Skittles with the "Best Newcomer" award at the Pride in London Parade awards
Our Thoughts
I often think of Skittles as Mars’ bastard child. Whereas everything else about Mars brands (ok, not Snickers) seems disciplined and controlled to almost anal levels, Skittles runs free.
It’s eccentric, wild and often a little bonkers (in a good way). It’s like a child running high on E numbers.
But here it’s done the reverse. It’s toned it all down – including stripping off the rainbow colour palette – to go ‘naked’, yet behaved in a respectful and utterly charming way.
It’s a complete contrast to the way most other brands get alongside the Pride movement, adopting the rainbow in rather arch and less-than-convincingways, and all the more powerful for it.