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I’m only 25, but I’m starting to feel old. This idea has zero appeal to me, although I recognize I’m not the target market.
“Sprite Yard,” a new social networking site aimed at teen cell phone users, will be introduced by the Coca-Cola Company later this month. With hopes of becoming the “MySpace of the cell phone world,” Sprite Yard will look just like other networking sites but will only function on cell phones.
I’m going out on a limb here, but I’m willing to bet Sprite Yard will bite the dust in a few months.
First – I have to get this out of the way – what is up with the name? Sprite Yard? It makes me think of a prison. I even checked on Urban Dictionary to make sure I wasn’t missing something. Not to mention it doesn’t roll off the tongue and it sounds like corporate marketing crap.
Second, I’m reluctant to believe that teens will spend that much time in the Sprite Yard via their cell phone. Sprite seems to think they will – its own marketing team said the cell phone is the most popular medium with teenagers. I don’t doubt that. Teens spend tons of time on their cells, talking and texting. But do they surf the Web? I’m not sure. At this point it seems silly to me to pay (a lot) for Internet over your phone when you already pay for a full-screen Internet experience at home. Maybe that’s the grown-up in me.
Moreover, do teens really need another social networking site? Instead of “I wrote on your wall!” or “OMG, I can’t believe he put that picture up on Facebook!” will kids start saying, “Dude, I’ll catch ya later in the Sprite Yard!”? Yeah, if they want to be stuffed in a locker.
Maybe it would work if they decided just to call it “The Yard” and have Sprite be prominent on the site. But Sprite Yard? Isn’t including a brand name in anything related to social networking pretty much a death trap? Then again, The Hub didn’t work for Wal-Mart.
Finally, although a minor argument, is there a safety issue here? Aren’t teens distracted enough by their phones while driving? Will networking while driving become the next texting while driving?
In the end, think an ad exec put it best when he said, “Nobody wants to go hang out with Sprite.” Enough said.
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As for the name, perhaps someone in the brainstorm recently watched Stomp the Yard with their kids. Terrible. In addition to prison, I think of recess. And last time I checked, recess wasn't cool with teens.