Wrigley Canada

Over the last several years in Canada, Skittles communications had been mainly limited to TV. BBDO’s task was to engage fans with an entertaining digital experience that would bring to life the Skittles mantra: “An intersection of real and imaginary where unexpected possibilities abound.”

Leveraging the Wrigley brand’s existing quirky, popular creative, the agency wanted to show people what happens when they actually “Touch the Rainbow.” But it didn’t invent a new kind of touch screen. People were just asked to touch their computer screen and watch as their finger played a starring role in five online ads as crime fighters, hitchhikers and warriors, among other roles. If people moved their fingers away they saw text on the Skittle inviting them to put their finger back, giving the illusion of a much higher tech experience.

The videos were hosted on Skittles’ Canadian YouTube channel, and sent to nearly 300 blogs. There was a link to the brand channel on Skittles’ Facebook page, and a masthead on the YouTube homepage.

Within three days, the videos had over 1.5 million views, exceeding the campaign target of 800,000. They racked up over five million views, and were featured on 2,200 blogs over the month, earning over 104,600 comments, 88,000 Facebook shares and 5,000 tweets.

Skittles garnered the most YouTube subscribers in April, with over 11,000, and overall the campaign received over 60 million earned media impressions.

At Cannes this year’s, “Cat” nabbed a Gold Cyber Lion while “Cat,” “Cage Cop” and “Hitchhiker” won a Gold Campaign Film Lion.