Mascot’s are among the more innovative and satisfying tools available to a marketer. A mascot is something which can stand out and break through the clutter. Moreover, unlike an ambassador, it is something very unique to a company, and is not subject to the vagaries of time. It can be moulded very easily, and entrench itself in public thought. Indian marketers are no strangers to mascots either.

One of the longest running mascot’s in Indian history is the Amul Baby, the chubby butter girl who warmed her way into the nation’s heart 42 years ago. Before this, Amul had a very staid image, one which was not wont to excite consumers. Amul needed to change its image, which is exactly what happened once Sylvester daCunha was given the Amul account in 1966. He came up with what has been one of the longest running mascots in history, and has made its way into the Guiness Book of World Records as the longest running outdoor advertising campaign. Whether they were by the roadside, near your office building, over by the bus stop, you could find them anywhere, and they took the nation by the storm. One of the wonderful things about the campaign was that the hoarding’s always stayed fresh in the minds of the consumer, with an ever evolving topical message which reflected the latest events in Indian society. Neither were the advertiser’s risk averse, there were times when the ad’s ran into controversy – for example, the time when Indian Airlines was angry at their depiction of a strike, and threatened to stop supplying butter on the plane unless the ads were taken down!

Another mascot which helped a company launch its product are the ghost-like ZooZoo’s. The ZooZoo’s were used to launch Vodafone’s VAS ( Value Added Services) during the Indian Premier League (IPL) matches. Every ad featured a humorous situation where the need for a particular Vodafone service was brought to the forefront.  The ZooZoo’s stuck in the public’s memory, and made sure that this particular ad campaign would not be forgotten easily.  There are many things about ZooZoo’s that surprise people – for example the fact that the ZooZoo’s were not animated creatures, but in fact real human beings wearing specially constructed uniforms. The arms and legs were quite thin, and their head rather larger, all to enhance the impression that they are smaller than humans. Even the sets where the ads were shot were specially constructed due to the ZooZoo’s size. Vodafone launched a campaign of 30 ads, which were released one by one stretching through the IPL cricket tournament with one ad being released everyday or every second day, making  sure that each ad would be fresh in the public’s mind.

Another iconic example is the Onida devil. The devil’s smirk was something every person who watched the ad would remember. However, while it successfully launched the Onida, the devil himself has not had a happy journey, even being truncated from the brand at one point, only to make a comeback into the team. Onida has now formally bid farewell to the devil, however the legacy lives!

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