America's Most Memorable Mascots

We wanted to create a campaign for a logo products company that would tell a compelling story and have an emotional hook. The promotional products industry isn’t usually considered “exciting,” but by broadening out to view them as a part of the advertising and branding industry we knew we could create newsworthy content that would position them as leaders in the space.

We knew that people process visual information like logos and brands in a very personal way and that companies spend billions of dollars to cultivate their mascots and the corresponding emotions. But was all this money worth it.

To learn the answers, our researchers showed 1,630 respondents a total of 82 mascot images (stripped of any text) and asked them to identify the brand. There were no hints or multiple-choice options — just a blank line.

It was technically challenging - sourcing dozens of photos and removing any identifying marks.
It took a lot of time and personal attention - reading every response and deciphering the spelling to discern the respondents' intent in order to code it into a response that could be analyzed.

Some of the characters were more than 100 years old. Others were millennials. We covered the lifespan of the advertising industry.

The goal - which we achieved - was to make a campaign that was both relevant and really interesting to people of all ages and walks of life.

Campaign Landing Page: https://crestline.com/c/brand-mascots-and-logo-designs-that-work

Results: https://northstarinbound.coveragebook.com/b/6c5dd9fcd59fb74d

Summary of results: Estimated coverage views of 445,000; 82 pieces of coverage with 67 links with an average MOZ Domain Authority of 54; The page was shared on social media 666 times.

Earned coverage from Business Insider, AdAge, PR Week, Ad Week and the Hearst newspaper network (including the San Francisco Chronicle, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and Albany Times-Union).