I went to check Twitter this morning and Skittles was a topic amongst the people I followed. They were talking about something new and cool with the Skittles website. I never really go to candy websites–who does? Fast food restaurants are useful in that we can find locations although I use Google for that sometimes.

So what is so special? Skittles’ new website has become a “siteless” site. If you go and take a look at it  you’ll see that you get a prompt to enter your date of birth as Skittles has a policy of not advertising to children aged 12 or younger. Upon proving that you are old enough, the site will load the Twitter search results for “skittles”.

A navigation box is left in the upper left corner where you can view more information which all lead to other social websites. Choosing Products will send you to the Wikipedia page listing all their products. Looking at Videos or Pics will send you to YouTube or Flickr. Selecting Friends will send you to their Facebook Fan Page–I became a fan.

There is also a tab that says “Other Gobbledygook” that slides out the fine print.

I have an appreciation for interesting and new marketing campaigns like this one. The word of mouth and buzz that Skittles has created with this is likely tremendous. I haven’t thought about Skittles for a long time until today–that has got to say something.

UPDATE: While I didn’t think of this at first glance, Skittles is not actively participating in the conversation. That is an important part of using word of mouth and social media. I still think the idea is good, they just need to continue to execute it well.