How to use your mascot online, and why you should
More of what we do today is moving online, including advertising, community engagement, and of course mascots! In this blog we will explore the benefits of using your mascot online, and some tips on how to do it.
Why use your mascot online?
A simple reason for this is all the reasons why you might want to have had a mascot in the first place. Mascots offer a friendly and personalized face for your brand. Be it in print, or for “real” as a mascot costume at events, they are more likely to elicit an emotional response, and therefore be more memorable than a logo or branding identity without.
When taking your mascot online, the same applies. Giving your mascot an online identity helps to create a memorable experience for your website and social media visitors. They can even give an added technical boost to the way your website functions for its users. Looking at mascot use in User Interface, this blog article finds that mascots “liven up the interactions, catch up attention and draw it to needed details, become the memorable element, create important consistency of a general stylistic concept and create the strong imitation of direct and human-like communication with the user.”
Using your mascot online creates an extra feature on top of more conventional advertising and events: the chance to go viral. Online content is easily shared between people and across platforms. A funny video of your mascot’s latest performance, or a cleverly crafted meme can spread your reach right around the world.
How to use your mascot online?
Your mascot should be featured prominently on your website and social media but consider adapting to fit the purpose.
For the website, your mascot design should be integrated into the overall purpose and style of the page. As a header, a simplified logo design can remind visitors of your brand while they scroll through your content. Mailchimp use just the head of their monkey mascot for their website header.
Your mascot design can be easily adapted to based on the situation or purpose of the page. For example, we use our mascot Ben giving a thumbs up when our website visitors submit a new request. This quickly lets the visitor know that everything has gone through alright on the form, and immediately presents a memorable character for them to associate with our company. Consider applying different themes or outfits to your mascot, to match the season or holiday as well.
Online can also be the place your mascot can truly shine on its own. In a mascot performance, mascots do not typically talk, as the illusion can be broken this way. But online, there is ample space for your mascot to blog, tweet and ‘gram at will!
How about a dedicated page for your mascot on your website? Here you can elaborate on its backstory and bring more personality to your mascot and by extension your brand. Check out Become Better’s page for their mascot Big Blue. We brought this friendly fellow to life back in 2019, and the owner of the gym immediately got to work with a dedicated website page and Instagram account too.
Many mascots also take to social media, often with personal accounts. Here is where our earlier point on virality comes into play. Just think of Gritty, the NHL’s Philadelphia Flyers mascot (not a Promo Bears mascot). Only unveiled in 2018, it is an internet sensation, with 350,000 followers on Twitter.
We hope you find this page useful. If you’d like any advice on how you can best engage with your mascot online, feel free to contact us, and we would be pleased to brainstorm with you and if needed, draft up free mascot sketches to bring your ideas to life.
