Mobile advertising is one of the hottest topics of the day, but there may be a bigger picture in mobile marketing's potential that the industry is just beginning to uncover.

Coca-Cola is launching its very first salvo into the mobile marketing space, but the company not doing it with banners, text ads or commercial video reels. Instead it's launching its own mobile social networking site. The company's new “The Sprite Yard” portal isn't just a company sponsorship. Coca-Cola is forming a full-fledged mobile community engine under the Sprite brand, allowing its customers to create cliques of friends, share photos, synch calendars, send messages and blog, as well as giving away free mobile content such as unique animated ringtones and mobisodes video clips.