Welcome to part three of our mascot marketing series where we explore social media mascot marketing, and examples of some of the most successful brand mascots. These clever characters not only expertly represent their lucky companies, they have become brands unto themselves.
Geiko Gecko
The GEICO Gecko is a lizard with a twitter account, and no less than 29,600 followers. His Facebook page is followed by over 250,000 people… a quarter of a million people! GEICO Gecko shares his handy DIY videos under his #GeckoDIY hashtag, and likes to tweet about food and his many adventures. You’ll find some pearls of #GeckoLifeWisdom (such as a debate over which way the toilet roll should be hung) and virtually NOTHING about insurance. This cute and loveable little sticky-footed reptile has made something as yawn-worthy as insurance a lighter, warmer, and more recognisable brand. This video has 18,000 views on facebook.
Barbie Style – Instagram
Personifying the product. As a rule, successful brand mascots on social media post as their character, rather than their company. Even better when your mascot is literally your product personified. Barbie and her friends have 1.9 million followers on her barbiestyle Instagram account. She posts about her favourite outfits, going to yoga, hanging out with her dog, and generally receives over 40,000 likes and hundreds of comments on every post.
Mr. Clean
If you haven’t already, you must take a look at Mr. Clean’s Facebook page. Enjoyed by over 1 million followers, Mr Clean is a little bit cheeky, 50-something “sexy” cleaning mascot. His post from 7th February 2017 has received 4.4million views, 29,500 shares and over 45,000 likes. This page breaks all the “rules”. Posts are irregular, infrequent and mainly (hilarious and slightly unsettling) advertisements, yet engagement is through the roof. Comments like “I can’t believe a cartoon just made my heart race a little” are common. This goes to show that you can write your own script when your mascot character is designed to perfection.
Louie the Fly
Back on Aussie soil and Louie the Fly must get a mention. Louie proves your mascot can be a revolting little insect and still be loved by all. Mortein have included an about Louie page on their website dedicated to Louie’s persona, which is a great example of the depth in which you should delve to successfully create your character and their irresistible personality.
Do you remember the “Kill or Save Louie the Fly” campaign? This was a great outside the box mascot marketing campaign created by Red Agency and Euro RSCG. The campaign aimed to sustain brand awareness during the pest season of 2011-2012. They decided to utilise Mortein’s mascot of over 54 years, threatening to “Kill him off” from their advertising campaigns should the public vote to do so via Louie’s own Facebook page. It was genius to pose the question to the Australian public as to whether or not Louie should remain the face of Mortein.
Four months after launch, the Louie the Fly Facebook page had over 210,000 fans, 5000+ comments, 2,000+ shares and over 30,000 likes.
The page continued to enjoy excellent engagement over the years and through 2015 until Louie suddenly stopped posting! What happened?! We hope he hasn’t had another run in with the bosses.
Anything worth doing is worth doing well.
There’s no doubt investing in a brand mascot can be risky. Most critical is making sure your brand message, products and services are in demand, and on-point. When you’re certain you would benefit from a representative character, focus first on the embodiment of your company values, vision, and personality, before reaching for a costume.
We hope you enjoyed our mascot blog series, we had a blast writing it. Leave us your comments we’d love to hear from you. Which brand mascots do you love? If you have any mascot tips and/or mascot campaign success stories you can share, please do.
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