Mascots

Mascots : If you are considering to create a mascot for your brand, its just not as easy as you think. The level of investments are very high and we need to wait for a longer period of time to see that it gives us results. Take a look at popular Indian and International brand mascots

The Amul baby was born in 1967 is still a popular mascot. She may soon enter into the Guinness Book of World Records as the oldest campaign to survive in the market.

  AirIndia's Maharajah a popular one was created by JWT in 1946 and was in existence for a great period of time.



 







 Asian Paints Gattu developed by RK Laxman in 1954.
Gattu's like the 'common man', so it served well for Asian Paints till it wanted a mass-market appeal.In 2002, as part of a corporate rebranding strategy Gattu was dropped.








 Chinatamani :"No Chinta... Only Money" a memorable campaign from ICICI bank for their insurance products. The idea of having a claymation animated character worked wonderfully in the competitive insurance market.towards tax saving plans etc., .






Energizer’s pink bunny mascot  grabbed the interest of users in North America but could not excite the Indian market. This is one brand which has different mascots for Europe and Australia – the pink bunny has been replaced with the muscular human like battery mascot, since these part of the globe were already running ads for the Duracell pink rabbit.

Pillsbury Doughboy mascot was developed by Leo Burnett in 1960 . The little dough chef is now seen globally on all the Pillsbury products, giggling and blinking his blue round eyes in the commercials for Pillsbury cookies, flours, pancake mix and many others.
McDonald’s ‘Ronald’ our very own friendly clown and famous name after Santa, has been the most recognized mascot among kids and elders. The smiling clown is often seen around McDonald’s doing tricks and playing with kids. Yet to gain popularity in India as a popular character.
  Sunny : The mascot for Sunfeast, was originally outlined and developed for a brand of rice in Russia, that ITC was planning to import. This was created by Trikaya Grey, Chennai. Later this project got shelved and here we go, gets a name and has come in as a Mascot for the Sunfeast range. Need to wait and see if this is getting recognised as a strong mascot.

  



Fido Dido 
Fido Dido was licensed to Pepsi in around 1988, but the character did not receive much attention or popularity until the early 1990. He reappeared in 2000, and still is part of 7UP cans etc., The Indian launch of 7up was with this character and Rachel Reuben a popular model that time. Nice interplay between a live character and a cartoon. Very impressive launch for the brand 7up. No big investments have happen around this mascot post the launch in India.

 

Paddle Pop  Lion: is a popular character and belongs to Wall's, looks like will start becoming popular. Its earlier avatar as part of the sub brand of Walls "MAX" didnt take off well. Even when the mascot was extended to confectionary, it didnt receive any positive feedback.
Zoo Zoos: Were conceived as part of the IPL brand visibility strategy, therefore i wouldnt term them as Mascots. They are more as Visual metaphors. time will tell how Vodafone wants to handle this property, as of now they want to associate this as their IPL property only.

Others : Regal Detergent soap from Shaw Wallace had a mascot called "Tinku" who resembled Dennis the Mennace character was popular with the brand Regal. There were lots of them for the sporting events. Indian Railways ambituosly launched a character -  a friendly elephant. Bajaj Allianz has a mascot of a friendly agent. Amrutanjan Cold Gel launched a very badly executed Mr.Nose.