Role of a Mascot To Create Social Media Buzz and Connect With Your Audience

The mascot culture has been going on from ages. From college sports teams to international FMCGs, mascots have been adopted every now and then to grab people’s attention. So now in the digital age, when television and print are gradually dying out, can brands leverage the power of social media combined with a mascot to connect with the right audience? The answer is positive, and here is why it is so.

1. Mascot Personifies a Brand

A brand mascot is almost like an identity of the brand, at times even bigger than the logo.  It is also important, to ensure the mascot keeps up the brand image. For an Indian brand, Amul is one of the biggest examples. The cute girl from Amul is the face of the brand and they make it a point to come up with something creative for almost all major current affairs in India.

2. It Gives a Unique Identity to the Brand

Who doesn’t recognise Ronald McDonald or Pillsbury Dough Boy? Brands with mascots have a stronger recall in consumer’s mind than those who don’t. Just a logo and a fixed colour scheme might not stand out like a mascot would.

3. It Pushes Interaction on Social platforms and in Turn Increases Engagement

At times people are able to relate to a mascot more than the brand itself. Recently CouponzGuru launched its mascot ‘The Guru’ to give weekly advice on online shopping on social media, and surely enough people were hooked to hear more from the expert mascot.

4. Creative Mascots and Branding Activities Encourage Social Sharing and Hence Increase the Possibility of Campaigns Going Viral

We have a great example of Vodafone Zoozoos. This mascot was once very active on social media and Vodafone used it quite wisely for marketing purposes and they also used Zoozoos to encourage interaction at their social pages. And surely enough they got the conversations going across different forums online.

5. Mascots Give an Opportunity to People on Social Networks to Interact with the Brand Casually

Mascots are almost always friendly looking avatars. People find brands with mascots more approachable. People don’t directly talk to brands, hence mascots make the interactions interesting and engaging. For instance, one can’t just remember Cheetos without Chester the Cheetah.

6. Mascot Creates a Top of Mind Image of a Brand, if it’s Designed Well Enough to Relate to the Brand

I’ll take the case of Guruji of CouponzGuru here. He is a Guru, i.e. a wise experienced man, but with a flavor of youth, which is the target audience of Couponzguru. Thereby a Mascot’s identity should co-exist with the Brand’s objective.