The animation industry is not just thriving; it is a billion-dollar industry ready for future development and investment. As a result, an increasing number of businesses are using animated material in their marketing strategy in innovative ways. A popular trend among companies is to use animated mascots to connect with their customers better.
In this article, we’ll discuss the critical function of mascot animation and the numerous benefits it can provide to your business. Animating your mascot may dramatically increase customer interaction and make your brand more memorable. Though the route may present some challenges, the ultimate result promises to be extremely satisfying.
If you’re considering making the transition from a static to an animated mascot, you’ve come to the perfect place. We’re here to help you understand all you need to know about bringing your mascot to life. Stay tuned as we discover the fundamentals of mascot animation.
What Are Brand Mascots, and What is the Impact of Animating Them?
Simply put, mascots are characters that represent a brand in different marketing channels. A wide variety of examples are available, from humans and animals to food and even objects.
Looking at the 35 most famous and popular brand mascots, we see Mr. Peanut, a peanut, a food; Foxy, an animal (obviously a fox) representing the well-known browser Firefox; Colonel Sanders, the retired veteran, a human being who founded KFC; and Michelin Man and Doughboy, which are precisely things, imaginary beings that serve as their respective brands’ mascots.
Keep this definition in mind, and let’s move ahead. This blog is about the importance of animating mascots. But why bother to do so? It is undoubtedly a challenging task, so why allocate resources and budget to it?
The answer lies in the Historical Evaluation of Brand Mascots.
Over 100 years ago, a simple 2D drawing was enough to be used as a brand’s mascot, but not today! Everything is changing rapidly, and so is the way of marketing and communicating your brand’s identity to the target audience.
Animating your brand’s mascot may greatly enhance its capacity to represent your brand. However, in order to fully comprehend its benefits, this assumption requires further investigation. We’ll devote the following section of our blog to a full description of why this strategy is so effective.
How Can Animation Be Beneficial For the Brand’s Mascot?
Back in the day, most mascots were static pictures. Due to technological advances, nowadays, most brands have transformed them into animation models, resulting in vitality.
In summary, animating brand mascots allows them to convey a range of emotions, engage in actions, and interact with audiences across various marketing platforms.
However, this summary merely scratches the surface; let’s delve deeper into the effects of animations on brand mascots. In general, you can expect three main impacts from this approach.
1.Enhancing Brand Personality
As mentioned above, animation will bring a brand’s mascot to life, which has several benefits. Although static forms of mascots can convey a limited set of traits, animations can go beyond and communicate with audiences in a much more meaningful way.
As a result, brand personality and identity will be enhanced. Animations allow you to add facial expressions, body language, and, in some cases, voice. Therefore, it streamlines the process of showcasing a brand’s personality.
Animating mascots makes them more attractive and thus helps capture potential customers’ attention. Conveying brand personality will help you differentiate your business from rivals and present a distinct identity, even in high-competition markets.
Take M&M as an example. The colorful static mascots on the packaging are remarkable, but their animated versions showcase the playful personality of this famous brand.
Each M&M has its own characteristics, which are separated by their colors. In animated form, the brand effectively highlights the differences between the characters, catering to a diverse range of customer personalities.
2.Increasing Brand Recognition
If you want your brand to be memorable, animations are great tools. By nature, they occupy a part of the target audience’s mind, which is what your brand should invest in!
Animating the mascot professionally and strategically will leave a lasting impression on viewers. It’s widely acknowledged that improved brand recognition increases business success and profits.
Overall, brand mascots are considered great ideas for improving brand recognition. However, compared to static ones, animated forms perform at a whole different level, as they can evoke specific emotions in viewers and align with the business’s objectives at various times.
Aflac Duck is a fantastic instance. After years of running several campaigns, its respective brand pops up in people’s minds when they see the famous duck on screens, in digital banners, in print ads, etc.
3.Improving Storytelling Processes
Considering the importance and effectiveness of brand storytelling, it is wise to leverage all brand assets to streamline the process and increase its efficiency.
Ironically, not all forms of brand mascots can effectively serve as storytellers. Static ones are useless in terms of storytelling. Conversely, animations are helpful tools for narrating the brand’s story in a way that resonates with the target audience.
When a brand brings its mascot to life with the power of animations, it unlocks a wide range of storytelling possibilities for the mascot and the brand itself.
Animations are versatile and suitable for various formats, including TV commercials, social media posts, online content series, and even short films! The goal is to utilize them to narrate the story while keeping the brand identity sound and not deviating from its core values.
Gecko, the lizard, GECKO’s mascot, is a remarkable example. Although most people have seen Gecko in funny commercials, the insurance company used its mascot in a series of online shorts to explain some complex concepts about the industry. Gecko does this engagingly, and most people can understand what it is trying to say.
So, if you ever wonder how a brand mascot can grow your business, remember that there are many ways that you can benefit from these representatives. Regarding their animated forms, recall these three positive impacts on your business.
Now, let’s learn about various animation styles brands can choose to breathe life into their mascots.
4 Best Styles to Animate Your Brand Mascot
Several animation styles are available that you can utilize to bring the brand’s mascot to life. Among the various options available, these four have demonstrated their effectiveness.
1.Classic 2D Animations
Even though it’s old, this style is still classic and will never go out of style. It’s what brands always use to make models that are friendly and warm. This method always works, as we’ve already said.
Companies can use the art of exaggeration with the 2D classic style, which makes their cartoons come to life without spending a lot of money. Because it’s cheap and looks good, this style often gives a good return on investment.
It can also be very helpful for people who work in fields where ideas are complicated to use the 2D method to break them down and make them easier to understand.
An iconic example of a 2D animation mascot is Mickey Mouse, whose enduring popularity represents the legendary brand Disney.
3.High-Graphic 3D Animations
If you want to give your mascot more features and a more three-dimensional look in videos, you should use 3D styles. This style is often chosen by brands that want to show off a modern and classy image because it creates images with depth and reality.
This style isn’t just good at making realistic pictures; it’s also great at making animated characters that look like they’re from a cartoon. One well-known brand that did this well was M&M, which changed its models from 2D images to fully realized 3D figures, which gave their brand identity a new sense of energy.
On the other hand, switching to 3D modeling takes more time and money. Due to its more complicated production method, 3D animation costs more than its 2D version.
3.Stop-Motion Animations
To create stop-motion animations, you will need physical objects. To create the illusion of movement, dolls, puppets, figures, etc., will be moved slightly and photographed frame by frame.
The most significant attribute of this style is that it can convey a handcrafted feel. Additionally, it adds a unique charm to the animation brands want to create with their mascot.
It is also possible to focus on details in this style. Besides Classic 2D, stop-motion is an ideal choice for brands that want to evoke nostalgic feelings in their target audience.
Regarding its cons, creating stop-motion animations is extremely time-consuming. The required amount of time for the creation of stop-motion animations is much more than the time needed to make a 3D animation!
Furthermore, stop-motion animations have more limitations in terms of animating compared to 2D and 3D styles.
4.Motion Graphics
This style is a combination of visual elements, graphic designs, text, and animation. It aims to create an engaging form of content in which brands explain and present diverse topics.
This style is popular among brands that like basic designs and want to convey their message simply without going into too much detail. Motion graphics are truly adaptable and can be used in diverse channels to achieve various goals and objectives. But it’s important to keep in mind that this style mainly focuses on visual aesthetics and storytelling, rather than on developing your brand’s mascot.
Selecting the best style is a vital part of the process. The industry you work in, the brand’s identity, the target audience, and the message you are trying to convey all impact the final decision.
However, choosing the proper style is only the initial step. You will need a firm strategy if you want to animate your brand’s mascot. Without further ado, let’s delve into it and explore some useful tips that are related to this topic
A Proven Strategy For Leveraging Animation in Brand Mascot
Brands should act thoughtfully in animating their mascot to ensure everything is on track. Regardless of your objectives, there are certain measures you can implement to maintain progress. Here, we’ll discuss these steps.
Defining Mascot’s Character
Having a comprehensive grasp of personality is key to animating a static image successfully. Determine the mascot’s voice, role in the brand, strengths, and beyond. How does it exemplify the brand’s values?
You may have already defined some critical traits, but since it’s an animated form, you must add more details to its character.
A clear character foundation ensures that the animation style, actions, and message the brand desires to communicate are all aligned.
Craft a Strong Storyboard
You will need a guideline to create various movements for the mascot; storyboarding will help you in this process and act as a guide. Indeed, it serves as a blueprint for your brand mascot’s animation. During this step, it’s essential to sketch out various movements of the mascot to ensure an emotional connection and smooth narrative flow.
Focus on Consistency
When you made the prototype for your mascot, you almost certainly followed some rules. It’s very important to remember those rules as you move on to the animation form. Maintaining consistency across all platforms is highly important. Anything less than that is just not okay.
As mentioned earlier in the blog, one of the advantages of crafting a mascot is its ability to enhance brand recall. However, achieving this requires consistency. Without it, individuals won’t establish a connection between the character and the brand.
Adjust Changes As Time Goes By
Trends will change over time, and the animation you created for your brand’s mascot may be outdated sooner than expected. Safe to say that you should Be prepared to make necessary adjustments as needed.
It is recommended that you renew your mascot’s animated representation on a regular basis. This technique guarantees that your business remains relevant and your target audience is engaged with it.
Nonetheless, it is advised to avoid making large changes. Instead, concentrate on polishing tiny aspects and maintaining the consistency you created during the animation process.
Gain Engagement
In the first weeks and months after creating the animated mascot, you should invest time in grabbing attention. The higher the engagement rate for the marketing channels where the animated mascot has been used, the more brand recognition you will achieve.
To engage potential customers and introduce the new mascot version, utilize puzzles, quizzes, polls, games, and other interactive content featuring the mascot’s animation.
Measure Results
Like any other activity in the digital world, after complimenting the animating process and utilizing the outcome in various channels, you should start gauging the results.
Measure metrics such as brand awareness, engagement rate, and customer sentiment to assess the effectiveness of the newly created animated mascot compared to the previous static image.
Not many brands can animate their mascots independently and require expert assistance. Some studios strive to meet this requirement by providing services related to the brand’s mascot, such as developing an animated version.
Why Collaborate With Animation Studios?
Designing a brand mascot by itself is a challenging task. Now imagine when you are in a stage where you should animate it; how much difficulty should you cope with? Our point is, if your goal is to have an animated mascot that really makes an impact and grabs attention, you’ll require the assistance of experts in the field.
We tried to cover all aspects of the process, but chances are you are lost and do not know what to do or where to start. It is absolutely normal, and you are not alone. We did not expect you to start animating the mascot right after this blog, as it is a profession that requires various skills.
This is why we encourage you to sign a contract with the animation studio of your choice.
By doing so, you entrust the tasks to professionals with extensive experience in animating numerous brand mascots.
When experts enter the field, the outcome will likely be fabulous. They have the required resources, tools, and software for creating different animation styles—things your business probably does not have access to since you never needed them before and will never demand them after.
Outsourcing this process will save you time, allowing you to focus on enhancing other aspects of your business.
Given this, we would like to stress again how important it is to work with a professional animation studio if you lack the necessary resources and expertise.
Conclusion
The importance of animating your brand’s mascot cannot be highlighted; it is a key part of giving your brand personality, raising awareness, and improving the storytelling process. By switching from static pictures to animated figures, businesses can connect with their customers on a deeper level, making the brand more remembered and interesting; therefore, getting help from a professional might be helpful and important for getting high-quality, powerful results.
This is where Dream Farm Studio steps in. With our extensive experience and expertise in animation, we can transform your static mascot into a dynamic character that perfectly illustrates your brand’s values and message. Our professionals use the newest software and tools to create animations that get people’s attention and tell the story of your brand in a way that is interesting and easy to remember. By partnering with Dream Farm Studio, you can ensure that your animated mascot will exceed your expectations, eventually setting you apart from your competitors.