Silver, Best Brand Event in the IVCA Awards
Shortlisted, Best Social Media-Led Campaign in the MAA Best AwardsAs the new packaging hit shelves, Skittles UK wanted to make sure that their fans knew what was up. Or down.
A monumental event calls for a monument. We decided to “Build The Rainbow”, and we got everyone involved. During a live ‘round-the-clock streaming event, Skittles invited fans around the world to add their single Skittle to a massive inverted acrylic rainbow.
Here, now, are a few of my highly-skilled website prototype renderings.
While our in-house team built the website, we worked with a vendor to fabricate the rainbow. There were all sorts of stress-tests and math and discussions on volume and other things I didn't understand. But the results were wonderful, as they usually are when you trust experts.
We rented a production studio near Waterloo Station in south central London and worked with the owners to build out our set, adding a clock and other finishing touches. Directors were interviewed and two were hired to ensure smooth around the clock transitions. Actors were hired to bring to life the moments of Skittles oddity that the writers and I helped loosely script.
By this point, the UK marketing team had sold the idea in to teams from 8 other markets in 4 other time zones.
The much larger viewership around the world meant we had to prepare for compelling viewing around the clock.
And then we went live. Over the next two days and nights the show went along interrupted.
Viewers added their Skittle via Facebook. Every 10 minutes the latest batch of sponsored Skittles dropped by chute into the inverted rainbow.
My agency colleagues and I took shifts observing, monitoring and guiding. I got to jump in and direct for short bursts when the actual real qualified director needed to step away. This was usually done in the pre-dawn hours when only Aussies and Kiwis and insomniac Europeans were tuned in, but I was a director, damn it!
In a little over 48 hours, more than 110,000 people from 9 countries in 5 time zones visited the Build The Rainbow page. They watched 13,888 hours of live footage, with the average viewing time clocking in at an amazing 7 minutes.
Skittles gained 17,408 new Facebook fans, 24,000 likes on the Build The Rainbow photo gallery, and comfort in knowing that the word was out on the new Skittles logo. Not a bad two uninterrupted days’ work.
