Twix anyone?

Why should FMCG brands have a website? The age-old question.

To cut to the chase there are lots of reasons; but most of these reasons dont have anything to do with the product (I mean, just how exciting can you make a tea bag?), and everything to do with time with the brand. Brand marketers dont often get this, or if they do they dont have the tools or (dare I say) bravery (or more likely) money to allow them to try something new today (Sainsburys ref for no reason)

Check out the Twix website for example.

I think this is a good and a bad site.

It's good becuase they have taken a creative idea (the site is an interactive video environment where you make desisions for the lead guy) and attached it to the brand. Its interesting, slick as hell and viral - plus the time with the brand must get on for about 10 minutes (though the site is a bit slow to buffer which annoys).

Its bad because it has NOTHING to do with the product. In any way. In fact I was discussing the virtues of FMCG brand websites and confused this brand with KitKat, because in my head I had made the association with this site and the 'have a break' strapline from KitKat's offline stuff (ps: the lead guy waits for you to make a decision - it ties in beautifully).

So this website is great - it's just that the wrong brand owns it!

Its a US site too - which means that it means little to the UK market (on the assumption that they actually tied this into 360 degree comms offline, e-mail, digital channel etc) - but that's ok.

It still resonates with me as a great brand immersion example - only they got caught up in the mechanics and left the brand behind.