Following in the ill-fated footsteps of Anheuser-Busch, Coca-Cola has launched a social networking community of its own – but in the mobile space. The “Sprite Yard” went live in China on June 1^st and a U.S launch will follow later this month. But following Anheuser’s less than successful BudTV initiative in the fixed environment, what are the chances of it connecting successfully with its teenage target market?

Users with a mobile data subscription can access the site by texting ‘yard’ to a special number from any WAP-enabled phone. They then receive a text reply containing a link through which they can access the site. The community is built by people inviting and accepting other users into their networks, and then interacting with them by sharing photos, using discussion boards, etc. The site also features downloadable content including ringtones and animations that can only be accessed by entering a PIN printed on the underside of special Sprite bottle caps.

As a mobile networking community, Sprite Yard is certainly a comprehensive offering with lots of attractive functionality. However, while this idea probably sounded great within the confines of a brand strategy meeting, there are several fairly obvious potential problems. Firstly, Sprite, while extremely popular as a soft-drink, has nothing like the cache of its parent brand Coca-Cola, or many other consumer brands. In any case, attempting to link a distinctly offline fizzy drinks brand to peoples’ online social existence is tenuous, in a way that linking existing Web brands like iTunes wouldn’t be. And that’s without taking into account that the same target audience can already use sites like myspace on their mobiles.

The second problem is that it is so obviously a marketing exercise, with the sole objective of selling more units of Sprite. The whole idea feels cynical and contrived in a way that online-originated mobile networking sites like funkysexycool or peperonity don’t. To a lot of teenagers, this kind of heavy-handed approach is a turn-off.

There are other potential problems, such as the likely response of the health lobby. Obesity in children is on the rise and marketing directed specifically at children is coming under increasing criticism from many quarters. So using the mobile social networking trend to enhance the Sprite brand could equally well achieve the opposite.

Hamish M.