The company mascot is a well-established tradition, as evidenced by Wikipedia’s fairly exhaustive list of them. And the tradition seems to be picking up steam in the social media age. Beginning with Twitter’s bird—not to mention its notorious fail whale—we seem to have entered into a sort of corporate mascot renaissance. Everywhere you turn there are owls and monkeys and bears—oh my!
Customers grow to care about these icons, too. Just last year, Stonyfield Farm floated the idea of removing their mascot, Gurt the Cow, from their logo. To quote Stonyfield CE-Yo Gary Hirshberg, they got “a real earful” from their community about that.
Response to mascots can vary—most of us remember Clippy, the Microsoft Office paperclip—but the best mascots are charming enough that, even when they occasionally annoy us, we can’t help but like them. And, if they’re not charming your customer base, makeovers and retirement are always an option. For an in-depth look at how Freddie the MailChimp monkey got himself a fresh new face back in 2008, check out this post by CEO Ben Chestnut.
Who are your favorite corporate mascots? What do they give or takeaway from the brands you love? Leave a comment below, then go out and have yourself a Fun Stuff Friday!
I love when a company can use a mascot for their branding. It’s soooo boring with yet another stock image of some models in suits smiling..
This fall we’re going to invent a mascot for our company. It’s not only the design of the mascot that’s important. It’s getting your brand to shine through in each and every text of your entire page. It’s gonna be a challenge, but fun!
Have a nice day!