Sprite Yard for Teens June 8, 2007
Posted by geoliv in : Networking , trackback
Yesterday, the NY Times wrote a story on the Coca-Cola company’s launch of Sprite Yard, a social network targeted towards teen mobile phone users. This is the second major social network initiative for Coke this quarter, following up on their very successful Virtual Thirst effort for Second Life.
Of course this campaign involves mobile networks, and that means using SMS to convey messages. We discussed the use of SMS on Twitter, and how that can cause financial woes earlier this week.
Instead of creating value for Second Life Users, Coke’s trying to create its own social network. Sprite Yard is a much different type of effort than Virtual Thirst. In her article, Louise Story notes there are several challenges for Sprite Yard, including:
- High data charges
- Cool factor: Will this really be able to compete with mobile Facebook or Twitter
- Content factor: Is this another Bud.TV?
Here’s my take on this as a new media marketing veteran: Sprite’s attempt to create value for the community — in this case teens — is not obvious to me. That’s going to be a problem as social media campaigns only tend to work when there’s obvious and non-promotional value for the community. I’m not sure this one has it (though I hope I’m wrong).
Some other thoughts from the blogosphere:
Mashable’s Kristen Nicole says, “Creating a social network around a brand can be difficult, especially when its limited to mobile access and has got such an apparent marketing angle. Coca Cola is also one of the major brands that will be advertising on Joost.”
Marketing Pilgim’s Jordan McCollum says, “If [Coke] remain committed to the project and really listen to feedback & other input, I think it could really do well in time.”
Publishing 2.0’s Scott Karp says, “Who knows — but I bet there are better ways to spend those technology R&D dollars than building a social network for soda.”
What do you think?
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