Of Mice and Mascots
Say hello to “Morris” – our new Vitogo mascot (version 1.0)!
I was trying to come up with a new 404 page for Vitogo, and ended up drawing a startup mascot in the process. He’s a “gym monkey” – get it? It’s something I’ve been thinking about doing for a while, but it wasn’t really that high on our list of priorities. But, I’ve been working on getting better at using Photoshop, so it seemed like it would be a good project for the day.
Here’s what he’ll look like on the 404 page. He’s really upset that you couldn’t find the page you were looking for:
Anyway, it got me thinking about other startups that have adopted mascots and why it might not be such a bad idea. Below is a great interview with Alexis Ohanian – founder of Reddit, Breadpig and Hipmunk – about designing an effective logo for your startup:
Watch the interview on Bloomberg (I couldn’t get their embed code to work).
Alexis has designed some pretty iconic logos and has great advice for startups who want to incorporate a mascot into their branding. First, it’s important to have a great product. A cute mascot won’t save a bad product and it might even backfire on you if you aren’t careful (à la pets.com puppet or Microsoft paper clip). If done right, however, a mascot can endear and inspire your fans in ways a plain logo can’t. In the words of Alexis, “You can’t really feel a connection with just a font.” A mascot can remind your users that there are real humans behind your startup and give them another way to remember your company.
I find that I actually feel more enthusiastic about companies that have cute mascots (and I’m way more likely to put their sticker on my laptop). It’s a fun way to market your company and engage with fans.
Here are a few of my favorite startup mascots. Let me know if you know of any more!
1. The GitHub Octocat
The octocat is by far my favorite startup mascot. I was hoping that there was a better story behind it, but apparently, GitHub cofounder Tom Preston-Werner was looking for a fun image for GitHub’s 404 page, found the Octocat on iStockPhoto, and purchased a limited-use license for around $50.
The octocat’s fame and notoriety has grown since then, with a full blown Octodex of octocat versions designed by people affiliated with GitHub. I think my favorite is the Nyantocat.
2. The HootSuite Owl
So maybe I have a slight bias toward owls, but the HootSuite owl is pretty awesome. It’s also very relevant and memorable, considering their name. Bonus points for turning it into a real life mascot.
3. The Reddit Alien
It wouldn’t be right not to include this guy on a list of startup mascots. Loved by Redditors, the Reddit Alien appears on t-shirts, watches, and soap. He even has his own twitter account.
The alien was designed by Alexis Ohanian in April 2005 using PaintshopPro5. You can read all about how the Reddit logo was created and take a look at the very first drafts.
If you’re looking for a full list of startup mascots, there is a good list on Quora.
