Submitted by Weber Shandwick

SKITTLES Littles Living

Weber Shandwick launched SKITTLES Littles by renting out a redesigned New York micro-apartment for a year, drawing over 17K applications in under two weeks.

17Kapplications

Case in 60 seconds

SKITTLES released a new product whose news was its size rather than its taste, so the launch had to build brand equity and engage the existing community while reaching new Gen Z fans in a crowded confectionery category.

The campaign appears to turn on Gen Z reading small space living as a design problem rather than a compromise, because tiny apartments and maximalist decorating were already running as trends across the feeds the brand wanted to enter.

Translate the product's defining attribute, its reduced size, into a place a fan could actually live, so that the launch story is told through a small home made maximal rather than through product messaging.

Weber Shandwick redesigned a 353 square foot New York City micro-apartment around SKITTLES Littles with maximalist designer Dani Klari, listed it for one fan to live in rent free for a year with SKITTLES paying all costs, and had Caleb Simpson tour the space on social before it went to market.

Weber Shandwick reports the launch reached Gen Z social feeds and media coverage in new verticals, fuelled a viral news moment that earned a spot on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and drove over 17K applications in under two weeks without anyone seeing the space in person.

Strategy Breakdown

The primary strategy-learning section — interpretation, not a press-release summary.

Gen Z fans, described on the page as new fans the brand set out to reach alongside its existing community.
New York rent forces a choice between what a young renter can afford and the space they would want to live in, which the campaign answers by making a 353 square foot apartment the desirable option rather than the fallback.
A confectionery innovation that differs from competitors only in size gives a launch very little to say, so the work had to make size itself the story rather than treat it as a product detail.
SKITTLES acted as the party paying the rent and the costs, which puts the brand in the position of removing a real barrier for one fan rather than sponsoring a message about small living.
Based on the available evidence, the campaign reads as built on Gen Z treating apartment tours and maximalist interiors as entertainment they seek out, so a tour of a branded apartment enters the feed as content rather than as advertising.

Creative & Execution System

Assets & channels

  • apartment tour
  • social content

Partners

  • Weber Shandwick (lead_agency)

Participation mechanic

  • Fans applied to live in the redesigned micro-apartment for one year rent free, with SKITTLES covering all of the costs, and the page reports over 17K applications in under two weeks.

Creator role

  • Caleb Simpson — creator
  • Dani Klari — creator

Results & Evidence

MetricValueResult type
applicationsdriving over 17K applications in under two weeks without anyone seeing the space in-personperformance

Why Weber Shandwick's strategy worked

  1. 1

    A product change that is only a change of scale can carry a launch when the scale itself is staged at human size, because the audience judges the idea by what it can enter rather than by what the packaging claims.

  2. 2

    Handing an existing trend to the creator most associated with it, in this case a maximalist designer and a home tour creator, appears to buy entry to a conversation that a brand arriving on its own would have to argue its way into.

  3. 3

    A prize that solves a live cost problem, here a year of New York rent, reads as the driver of the application volume, because signing up answers something the audience already wanted rather than something the brand wanted for it.

  4. 4

    The reported applications arrived before anybody saw the apartment in person, which suggests creator-led video tours can substitute for physical access when the offer is concrete enough to act on.

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