The Importance of Mascot Branding

Written by Zac Johnson
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Just as important as a great logo, a mascot can greatly help the branding and exposure of your company. Leaving a lasting impression in the minds of your site visitors or customers is crucial to having them remember your company. When I first launched ZacJohnson.com, I had a toon created of myself and it has worked extremely well for the branding and exposure of this site.

Let’s talk directly of mascots and not logos. Below I listed a few company mascots, with no mention of their company name. Do you recognize these companies and their actual name and products? If so, these companies were successful in their efforts to build a brandable mascot.

Just like old school companies like Disney and McDonalds that have used mascots to build their brand, new age companies like FreeCreditReport.com and Travelocity are doing the same with their television commercials. Who would have thought of a chihuahua promoting a company like Taco Bell? When you think of a dog, you would rather think about dog food than eating tacos! Not only is a mascot building a brand, but it may also bring a catchy tune that sticks in people’s heads (FreeCreditReport song), or just a fun likable character like the Travelocity gnome.

As more and more companies come up with new branding techniques, it’s always interesting to watch which stick around and fade away fast. ClickBooth actually just started their own mascot branding with “Clicky”, their Super Affiliate Hero. You can view the “Full Hollywood Story on Clicky” below.

What are some of your favorite mascots that you remember, and can you name all of the companies that belong to the mascots above?

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17 Replies to “The Importance of Mascot Branding”

  5. I agree that mascots can be great for branding. These brands would even carry over to similar looking animals/characters. So other dogs may remind you of taco bell or other clowns could remind you of mcdonalds. Interestingly, there has been some calls for mcdonalds to drop Ronald due to the way it targets young children and getting them into fast food at a young age.

  6. I love mascots. In fact the T.V. commercials with funny talking animals, are often the hardest we ever laugh at home. My favorite was a talking parrot that would say, "Read my Beak"

  7. I've been seeing Clicky all over the blogosphere. It is obvious that he is being pushed hard by Clickbooth. Now we have to wonder if he'll ever reach the levels of fame enjoyed by Ronald McDonald!

    1. @:

      Obviously he'd never stand a chance of competing with Ronald. The affiliate marketing industry is very small compared to the fast food industry. The use of this clicky mascot is just a desperate attempt by ClickBooth to try to differentiate themselves at a time when more new affiliate networks keep popping up.

  8. It is great to have a mascot for your blog so that people have something that they can identify with and also help brand your company. Mascots are great for developing a relationship with your readers

  10. Ronald Mc Donald is the most popular of them! ahaha I don’t know who’s that dog?

  11. Logos, attribution and mascots are all key elements of marketing a brand. A mascot doesn’t make a brand successful, although most successful brands have strong identity (logos), attribution (tag line) and possibly a mascot. A company that has strong brand image is a company that delivers on a consistent promise and connects with its clients. There have been many companies that sucked with cute mascots that never delivered a brand promise and faded away. I’d recommend you first focus on what makes you unique and give 110% to that if you want a strong brand. That typically pays much higher ROI than thinking you can call it in with a cute mascot.

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