What a sinus guy, a gecko, a red ball, the Philly Phanatic, and Posty can teach us about making a brand more memorable.
I have spent more time than I expected lately thinking about sinuses.
Specifically, the Mucinex guy.
You know the one.
Green. Gross. Uninvited. Somehow still employed.
And that is exactly the point.
I don’t need to see the Mucinex logo to know who that character belongs to. I don’t need somebody to explain what he represents. They gave the problem their product solves a face, a personality, and a recurring role in their marketing.
Now I can’t unsee him.
Marketing mission accomplished.
The same thing happens with the GEICO gecko.
Flo from Progressive.
LiMu Emu.
Mayhem from Allstate.
And…last but definitely NOT least…
The Philly Phanatic.
As a lifelong Phillies fan, I would be genuinely neglecting my duties if I didn’t mention the Phanatic here.
The Philly Phanatic isn’t just a cute character at a baseball game. He’s part of the whole experience. He entertains. He causes chaos. He makes people smile. And whether you’re at the stadium or just scrolling clips online, you know exactly who he belongs to.
That’s branding too.
These companies have huge marketing budgets, entire creative departments, and access to just about every advertising option imaginable.
Yet they keep coming back to characters.
Why?
Because humans remember characters.
I Went Down a Mascot Rabbit Hole
Have you ever checked out the Empire State Building’s TikTok account?
I know what you’re thinking…why does the Empire State Building have a TikTok account?
Isn’t it a building? Yes. Yes it is.
And this building does what a building does best! It….sits there.
Not exactly the easiest thing to turn into a social media personality.
So what did they do?
They used TikTok effects to give the building eyes and a mouth.
Suddenly, the Empire State Building could “talk.”
A national landmark with its own personality.
Target has played with the same idea using something even simpler: those giant red concrete balls outside its stores.
They took an object customers already associated with Target, gave it some personality, and turned it into content.
A concrete ball became a character.
Then there’s Tubby Nugget, an adorable little cartoon character that grew into videos, comics, products, stickers, toys, personalized messages, and an entire little universe people could interact with.
All three examples are doing something similar.
They give people something recognizable to connect to your brand.
Your Logo Can’t Do All the Work
I’m not saying you should suddenly abandon your brand’s logo. Far from it!
Your logo, colors, fonts, website, and brand standards are all integral parts of your brand!
However, none of those things have a personality by themselves.
A character can.
A mascot can react.
A mascot can show up in a situation your customers recognize.
A mascot can explain something.
A mascot can complain about something.
A mascot can become the customer, the employee, the problem, the solution, or the slightly chaotic observer standing off to the side wondering what everybody else is doing.
That gives you a lot more to work with creatively.
Think about Flo.
Progressive could create 500 ads about insurance coverage, and it wouldn’t have nearly the same impact without Flo.
Why? Because Flo gives those ads a familiar character. You already know who she represents when the commercial starts. And you’re already anticipating the humor, because Flo = funny Progressive commercials.
Having a character or mascot with that level of familiarity can do wonders for your brand.
Your Mascot Doesn’t Even Have to Represent the Good Part
Believe it or not, your character doesn’t always have to be sunshine, rainbows and puppies!
In fact, your character doesn’t even have to represent your company.
It can represent the issue your company helps people deal with. It can be the villain.
Hello again, mucus guy.
Allstate did something similar with Mayhem. He isn’t the comforting part of the insurance experience. He represents all the ridiculous things that can go sideways.
That opens up some much more interesting possibilities for smaller companies too.
Maybe you own a roofing company, and your recurring character is “Drippy”, the annoying little ceiling drip that keeps showing up where it isn’t wanted.
Maybe you’re an HR consultant, and your content occasionally features Reply-All Randy, who somehow manages to turn one innocent office email into an absolute disaster.
Maybe you run a cleaning company, and “Dusty,” a smug little dust bunny, keeps reappearing under the furniture like he pays rent.
I could keep doing this all day.
Please don’t encourage me to. 😅
The point is that your character gives your audience an immediate shortcut into your brand and what it’s about.
You don’t have to spend the first half of every post explaining the situation.
They see Reply-All Randy.
They know there’s about to be an email problem.
Small Businesses Might Actually Have More Fun With This
What’s really cool is that creating characters or mascots really caters to small businesses.
Back in the day, when people would hear the word mascot, they’d picture something that took a lot of money and resources to create.
A cereal box for a big brand like Kelloggs.
A national ad campaign.
A costume somebody has to wear at an event while you are paying them to slowly overheat inside of a giant foam head.
Sure, that is one way to do it. However, it certainly isn’t the only way. Nor is it necessarily the most effective.
Your mascot might simply be a hand-drawn character.
It might be an object sitting on your desk.
It might be something animated.
It might be a character you play yourself.
It could show up once a week, once a month, or whenever the idea fits.
If you’re running a smaller company, you don’t need six months of meetings and seventeen approvals to find out whether people like it.
Draw it.
Give it a name.
Make a post with it.
See what happens.
Boom. That’s it.
That flexibility is one of the advantages smaller businesses have.
You can experiment without requiring seventeen levels of pre-approval all throughout the entire corporation.
Meet Posty
Which brings me to Holloway Media Services.
We don’t just have a mascot idea floating around anymore.
We officially have one.
Meet Posty: Chief Posting Officer at Holloway Media Services.
Small but mighty. Sweet but sassy. Always posting with purpose.
And honestly? Posty fits us a little too well.
Posty started with one of my mom’s old drawings, which makes this whole thing feel even more personal to me. Years ago, I asked her to create a mascot for a slow-pitch softball team I was part of, and she came back with pages of fun little characters, each with their own personality and vibe. Recently, I found myself looking through them again, and one in particular stood out.
Now Posty has an HMS update, a phone in hand, oversized glasses, and a brand-new role.
Posty is the little marketing expert who tells it like it is, makes you laugh, and genuinely wants you to succeed.
Personality-wise, Posty is:
50% cheeky
25% encouraging
15% helpful
10% sweet
In other words, Posty will absolutely call out bad marketing, however Posty will do it with enough charm that you might actually enjoy being called out.
A few things Posty might say?
“Posting without a strategy? Bold choice, friend.”
“Your audience called. They’d like you to talk WITH them, not AT them.”
“Ghosting your audience? That’s one way to build a relationship. Not a good one, but a way.”
“AI wrote it. Cool. Did YOU read it?”
That’s exactly why I love the idea of Posty for HMS.
Posty gives us a way to talk about strategy, consistency, authenticity, audience connection, and all the little marketing habits that help businesses show up better online.
Maybe Posty pops up when we’re explaining a concept.
Maybe Posty reacts to questionable marketing behavior.
Maybe Posty becomes the tiny voice of reason your content strategy needed.
That’s the job.
Recognition.
Familiarity.
Personality.
Something unmistakably ours.
Before You Order 500 Plushies…
I’m not suggesting every company reading this immediately commission a cartoon character and start pricing stuffed animals.
Please do not email me six months from now surrounded by 487 unsold plush accountants and say Heather told you to do it.
I did not.
A mascot still needs a job.
What does the character represent?
What does it give you permission to talk about?
Does it fit the personality of your company?
Could you actually imagine using it more than once?
Most importantly, would your audience understand why it belongs to you?
Because creating something “cute” isn’t in itself a strategy.
However, creating something “memorable” definitely can be.
So…What Would Yours Be?
I have a new question I want business owners to play with:
If your company had a mascot, what would it be?
Don’t overthink it.
What does everybody associate with your work?
What object is constantly around?
What problem do you solve over and over?
What inside joke does your team already have that you can use here?
What character would your customers immediately understand?
Maybe the answer is ridiculous.
Good.
You can work with ridiculous.
Somebody once proposed a talking gecko for an insurance company, and nobody stopped them.
Thankfully.
Because decades later, you know exactly which company I’m talking about.
Being Remembered Is Part of the Job
Sometimes, especially in social media land, the thing people remember the most is the weird little character.
The recurring personality.
The red ball with a face.
The insurance salesperson everyone recognizes.
The mucus guy nobody invites over.
Please remember this:
Your expertise still matters.
Your strategy still matters.
Your message still matters.
However, a mascot simply gives all of that expertise somewhere else to live.
A little oddball that lovingly worms its way into their thoughts. That amplifies engagement. And most importantly, a character that creates instant recognition for your brand.
October PowerLine
What Would Make Your Brand More Memorable?
If you have expertise worth sharing, your marketing should help people recognize it, remember it, and understand why you’re the person they want to work with.
At Holloway Media Services, we help thought leaders turn what they know into clear, creative content that strengthens their authority, expands their visibility, and gives the right people more reasons to pay attention.
Sometimes that means stronger video.
Sometimes it means sharpening the message.
Sometimes it means finding the recurring idea, character, story, or format that finally gives your audience something unmistakably yours.
Book a conversation with us, and let’s find the ideas your audience will remember.
