Schools have it. Professional sports teams have it. Now, companies are learning the benefits of having a “face.” The Pillsbury Doughboy, the Geico Cavemen, the Travelocity Gnome, the Aflac Duck – each of these companies are set apart from the herd because they have created a company mascot – they have put a face on the brand.
Not only do the characters bring a face and personality for the brand, but these characters can become iconic, in a sense. They become a part of pop culture. They also unlock doors to alternative forms of marketing, like viral marketing, that are extremely hard to crack for marketers and advertisers. But having a video on You Tube with real people documenting their travels with a gnome is priceless – literally – but the benefits from the branding, publicity and marketing efforts cannot be compared to traditional media.
Traditional media, like commercials, may, if they’re lucky, have the same numbers of viewers as a popular You Tube video. However, the number of people who actually paid attention to the commercial drastically differs from the viral video, let alone the difference in production costs. Hands down, a popular viral video will trump a well-crafted commercial any day.
