Skittles Holiday Pawn Shop
Wrigley Canada
Issue 39 | June 2016
Agency
BBDO Toronto
Creative Team
SVP, Executive Creative Directors Denise Rossetto Todd Mackie VP, Associate Creative Directors Chris Booth Joel Pylypiw Senior Copywriter Matt Hubbard Senior Art Director Mike Schonberger
Production Team
Agency Producer Terry Kavanagh Production Company Creative Soul Director Matt Eastman (Creative Soul) Cinematographer Michael Banasiak (Creative Soul) Producer Evan Landry (Creative Soul) Exec. Producer Adam Palmer (Creative Soul) Editorial House Panic & Bob Editor Steve Puhach (Panic & Bob) Post-Production Company Smith Audio House Ricochet
Other Credits
VP, Group Account Director Kristina Hayes Account Director Saloni Wadehra Account Executive Zach Kula Media Agency MediaCom Canada PR Agency Harbinger
Date
December 2015
Background
Sales of Skittles tended to drop off during the December holiday period as buyers opted for more traditional sweets and candy.
In order to increase awareness, Skittles needed an idea that would not only compete against traditional holiday candy, but one that would cut through the clutter of all holiday advertising.
Idea
We don't always get the gifts we want at Christmas. In fact, nearly 75% of Canadians said they had been disappointed by a bad holiday gift at one point in their lives.
So Skittles gave Canadians the opportunity to get rid of those unwanted gifts and trade them for something they really did want: Skittles!
The Skittles Holiday Pawn Shop was opened, a pop-up shop in Toronto, where customers could trade unwanted gifts for Skittles.
An online video, featuring Dale the Dealmaker, was published and a website where visitors could get a quick appraisal of the gifts they wanted to dump.
Results
During the five days the shop was open between Boxing Day and December 30th, thousands of customers traded in unwanted items for a grand total of over three million Skittles. About 3,300 items collected were donated to Goodwill, one of Canada's largest charities.
The shop was visited by 2,720 people, 120% above target. Thanks to local and global media coverage, earned media impressions exceeded 100m, 203% above target; and the site achieved 51,800 uniques, 420% ahead of target.
Requests also came from around the globe to bring the pawn shop to their city.
Our Thoughts
What's not to like about this? The premise – that we all receive stuff we don't really want at Christmas – is universal (and increasingly used by advertisers at this time of year). Giving us an easy way to get rid of it, do some good, and get some Skittles in return, is powerful.
In a nutshell, it's a giant, extended, sampling exercise.
You can see why the idea got so much media attention. The news cycle around the holiday period is deadly dull so anything different stands out; the same goes for all that post-holiday period advertising (which I would ban if I ruled the world).
Plus that period between Christmas and New Year is just so...enervating. Giving people something fun to do is a help. With the shop opening on Boxing Day, the idea that you can dump your unwanted gifts just 24 hours later contains just a hint of the irreverence and anarchy that lies behind so much of Skittles' work.