NEW YORK-Coca-Cola Co. is moving aggressively onto the mobile marketing playground with a kind of mobile MySpace centered on the company’s Sprite brand.
The soft-drink titan plans to launch a worldwide community allowing users to create profiles and exchange photos and messages, executive Mark Greatrex said during the keynote address at the Mobile Marketing Forum in New York. The free downloadable application, dubbed “Sprite Yard,” will be available via a short code. The effort launched in China last week and is set to launch in the United States beginning June 22. To access the application, U.S. consumers can text “YARD” to 59666 and receive a reply with a WAP link to access the Sprite Yard for the first time.
Coca-Cola hopes to offer the application in “many more countries” next year, Greatrex said. “Sprite will be our pioneer in the fast-moving world of mobile marketing,” Greatrex told the audience. “We believe Sprite Yard is the most comprehensive mobile marketing effort on the planet.”
Sprite is the company’s second-largest trademark and particularly popular with African-American teens, Greatrex said. Building upon its “Sublymonal” advertising campaign, the Sprite Yard will comprise a number of components:
- Allow users to connect with friends;
- Share and store pictures;
- Includes a planner option that users can share calendar information for the next two weeks with others;
- A message-board option called Scribbles;
- Shouts, which allow users to shout out to one person or many;
- And Nuggets, where users can unlock mobile applications by entering PIN codes from Sprite bottle caps. These nuggets include visual ringtones, mobisodes and games, Greatrex said.
Sprite Yard is designed to be a PG-13 experience, Greatrex explained. Coca-Cola is using proprietary infrastructure to run the service, but said it is also good for wireless carriers because it will encourage people to sign up for data plans.
Whether the Sprite Yard will be successful remains to be seen. The key is to drive more audience participation, said John Hadl, CEO of Brand in Hand, which advises Proctor & Gamble’s mobile marketing efforts. “Who looked under a coke cap before?” Hadl asked.
Coca-Cola sells 10 billion single-serving bottles of pop each year worldwide, Greatrex noted.
