The outcome of the recent Pop-Tarts and Cheez-It college football bowls – where Pop-Tarts introduced its new mascot as the first “edible” mascot and Cheez-It responded in kind with its mascot noting that it was “non-edible,” generating significant social buzz for both brands – made it clear that mascots can still contribute breakthrough moments for brands.
As marketers grapple with fewer mass media moments and continued social media fragmentation, among other challenges to get people to pay attention to their brands, the appeal of mascots may grow for brands that don’t already have them. The ability to create a character that will appear across social platforms and potentially help a brand become more recognizable on those platforms is one reason for the interest, according to agency execs, who noted that mascots are essentially a cheat code to brand recall.
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The original post is at Marketing Archives – Digiday
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