Coca Cola launches Sprite Yard- A Mobile Social Network
Coca Cola is soon to launch its new mobile social network called Sprite Yard which will be launched on June 22nd in the US. Users would be able to share photos and download videos and ringtones.
Teenagers seem to be the obvious TG as they are the biggest consumers of the product and connect with the brand very well also they are the most active group on mobile as well as the net and can adapt very easily.
So what’s so different about this social network??
For one it is a Coca Cola product. Coke being one of the biggest and most popular brands worldwide would certainly be able to create initial hype and initiate trial by users.
The company chose this brand (sprite) for its mobile venture because of its appeal to teenagers.
Coke said it may expand the service to other brands as well as create related desktop Internet sites. Coke will make the U.S. site available to Web-ready phones on June 22.
They are targeting the US and Chinese market initially but plan to expand it to Latin American market in the coming months.
Sprite Yard is specifically made for cell phone viewing. Keeping that in mind Facebook a popular social networking website is also accessible form he mobile phone which seems to be the biggest competition for Sprite Yard. People also log onto their MySpace accounts from their mobile phones but the number is not anything to boast about.
"The Coca-Cola Company needs to continue to recruit future generations of consumers. Mobile marketing is absolutely where it’s at for us going forward," said Mark Greatrex, senior VP of marketing for Coca-Cola.
The company added that they would monitor the service continuously to make sure that inappropriate photos and video were not posted. The company did not give financial details on the cost of the project.
Coke will also use the site to promote Sprite through free music and video clips to visitors who type in a pin number found under bottle lids.
Although coke claims that Sprite has more connect with the youth some (like me) might wonder why didn’t Coca Cola come out with a Coke Social Network and why did they look at Sprite when we all know that coke is more known, has better reach and is popular amongst teenagers as well adults of all age groups, I agree that the youth can adapt easily to new products on mobiles as well as the web but why don’t they consider that elderly users would atleast give it a shot because it’s a Coke Product also that the US consumers are more advanced users than most of the other countries in terms of technology and usage so, they would be more active on social networks and mobile phones and would certainly be more comfortable than their counterparts in countries like India.
One of the reasons I feel why Coca Cola didn’t choose Coke as a social network could be because they don’t want to take such a big risk with their flagship brand because it (mobile social network) would be the first of its kind from their side and if the product is not upto users expectations it could really affect the brand.
A similar site launched in China last week.
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DO you think a social network by pepsi or coke can work in india? Like sunsilk gang of girls?