M&M has been taking some bold moves into Web 2.0 over the pas 6 months. Their first notable effort was to build out web-based system whereby I could customize a an M&M to look like me. This effort was supported with traditional media.
The interface looked like this:
It was a little rough around the edges, but the system worked.
Still, it never struck me as profound. Frankly, people aren’t in love with the M&M guys to the point they want to be one. Yes, they are huggable and edible, but I wouldn’t put them up there with Stay Puft Marshmellow Man.
My opinion was confirmed when this technology was applied to the Simpsons. As part of their movie promotion, the Simpsons crew built out a similar system whereby you could create your own Simpsons character. This was brilliant, and it played directly to what many of us have dreamed about at least once over the past 15-or-so years: getting a cameo on a Simpsons episode.
Since this battle of avatars, M&M has changed coarse. Their newest campaign (I saw it on TV last night) is promoting a new web-based system whereby you can add custom text to M&Ms.
To me, this is much more on strategy. I wrote a few months ago about another company, MyMuesli, that opened up their production model for mass customization. If M&Ms (and it’s ad agencies) want me to emotionally connect with the M&M brand – thus making it “my” brand for candy – then they need to let me make “my” bag of M&Ms. Let me pick the colors, let me pick the type of chocolate (dark, light, white), let me pick the packaging and let me pick the text that will be written on the back of each thick candy shell.
M&Ms still has a way to go with their system (you can see it for yourself here) as currently you can only choose two colors from their palate and the text comes in only one font, but they have taken the right approach. To date, I know of no other food company with American presence that allows a customer to customize a product. Unlike the avatar system, this is profound.
Willie 