• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, March 5, 2009

Skittles chose the brand's Wikipedia site to become its home page after spending a week testing social media sites Twitter and Facebook, according to Ryan Bowling, spokesman for Mars Snackfood U.S.

The goal is to create buzz by appealing to Skittles' core consumers who spend hours online in social and user-generated media sites. They often look to their peers for opinions on products, said Bowling.

"Yes, we were evaluating the different sites," Bowling said. "This site is unique and it's exciting to see the reception we've received." The redesigned Skittles site, which launched Feb. 27, took several months to build. It requires consumers to enter their birthday because Mars made a pledge not to market to anyone under age 12. A menu comes up as an overlay in the window.

Bowling calls that menu a "remote control." Clicking on the "Chatter" tab takes the site visitor to the Twitter page where the Flash navigation bar hovers over live feeds from consumers talking about Skittles, among other things. The "Friends" tab takes consumers to Facebook where 591,931 fans have signed up as of Thursday evening. The "Media" tab takes consumers to flikr or YouTube.

People who follow the Skittles brand know its marketing campaigns are a "bit random," and sometimes emerge with an "unexpected twist." Bowling said to stay tuned and expect more of the same.