Coke's Sprite Yard

Return to Coke's Mobile Strategy

Mobile advertising doesn't work in a vacuum, and probably for the next few years, it will remain a complementary channel that is part of an overall brand strategy. 

But there are challenges to overcome. 

Yaakov Kimelfeld, vice president and digital research/analytics director at MediaVest, which implements brand-building campaigns and solutions, said today's mobile web is still limited. Barriers include poorly designed WAP sites, limited interaction options and slow and costly data transfers. 

"Mobile ad delivery is not yet centralized and there's still no third-party serving mobile," he said. "There are also too many technology approaches (XHTML, Java MME, FlashLite, .NET Compact, et cetera) and issues such as which browsers and mobile devices the new site should be optimized for."

Kimelfeld added that mobile marketers also don't have enough tools to evaluate and compare WAP sites side by side.

"Data from mobile measurement leaders is not yet granular enough to be useful for campaign planning," he said. "More often than not, a planner learns about relevant sites from word-of-mouth and vendor outreach and has no hard numbers to rely on."

Margaret Clerkin, CEO of North America MindShare Interaction, added that traditional creative agencies are not all up to speed in the mobile arena.

"The burden falls on the media agency to put together a roadmap for mobile development, including locating creative development partners, ad inventory, ad serving, research, analytics and more. Unfortunately, one-stop shopping for mobile services is limited," she said.

Coke: Sprite Yard

Launched in China on June 1, and in the United States on June 22, Coke's Sprite Yard is a real-time digital community that the soft drink giant hopes will foster a mobile social community and ultimately drive sales of Sprite, Coca-Cola's second-best selling beverage after Coke. (Ten billion single-serve packages of Sprite are sold each year.)

Anyone with a WAP-enabled phone can download and share pictures, interact with friends via text messages, get exclusive information and use a planner.

In the United States, for example, consumers text "YARD" to 59666 ("Lymon") and receive a reply with a WAP link to access the Sprite Yard for the first time. Clicking the link directs the mobile device to the "Yard" where users register by selecting a tag name and password. Once registered, they can create a profile to share with others.

Sprite Yard also offers free downloadable content, "visitones" (visual ringtones combining music with visuals) and "mobisodes" (animated shorts), both unlocked through a PIN found under the cap of every 20 oz. Sprite bottle.

"The brand becomes the enabler of mobile social connections," said Mark J. Greatrex, senior vice president of marketing communications at Coke. "The Yard users literally have their friends in their pockets."

But Greatrex also acknowledged that Coke needs to integrate mobile into all of its marketing endeavors.

"We need to explore how mobile marketing can drive impulse purchases at point-of-sale," he said.

Next: Coke: Bottle Films