Through stumbling into it, AO Racing and Pfaff teams have accidentally stumbled onto an application of Jenni Romaniuk’s research and book, “Building Distinctive Brand Assets.”

Her findings, based on decades of studying how memory is built: mascots and human characters score extremely high on both being noticed and recalled, right up there with sound (for example, five notes and you know it’s the McDonald’s jingle).

In the sports ecosystem (I created a PDF of this in the link below - please tell me I am wrong or if you see this differently), teams are aiming for the same thing; sponsors want to improve their brand perception and awareness, and the service providers want to work with both and get more clients.

Whatever seat you sit in. You’re largely going for the same thing. More fans, wins, revenue, trust and loyalty. If you’re competing in a noisy space, one way to stand out is through a mascot.

First, let me get ahead of some objections that I might get. “This feels too American” or “This only works for The Yanks.”

I disagree. A mascot is often used in football:

Even in my beloved TV show Top Gear. The Stig became a mascot! You get the idea. If done tastefully, it works.

So let’s look at whether it works based on where you sit in the ecosystem (refer to the chart).

A sponsor can build one too, but it will only work for some. If the brand has no visible product in the arena/track and lives only in hospitality. So pretty much most sponsors.

For example, logistics, insurance, professional services, or any B2B products.

Most famously, we had Microsoft Clippy, usually known for being annoying and intrusive. But apply the nostalgia tax years later, and it’s become an internet meme of the 1990s tech era.

For a boring tyre company, we have the Michelin Man, whose actual name is Bibendum, the century-old mascot.

In NASCAR, we have the GEICO Gecko, which has spent over two decades as a visible mascot and sponsor across the series. Jake from State Farm is another insurance company with great recall.

In most instances, these represent the brand as a whole, but what about applying them only to a specific partnership? A way to freshen up the partnership; if it’s longer term, it will compound more.

For example, Jack Whitehall plays an ambassador-type role and central star for the content series with Marriott Bonvoy and Mercedes AMG F1.

Samuel L. Jackson is a major celebrity for Capital One. You can never forget his catchphrase - “What’s in your wallet?” (I didn’t even have to look that up; it’s ingrained in my brain).

We’re bending the rules of what a mascot is, but it’s flexible. The rights-buyers seat has to be the most intentional about choosing a mascot, but don’t manufacture it like a committee.

As we talked about earlier, AO Racing in IMSA is one of the most prominent teams in the series. They have Rexy and Spike as mascots, and they go further than just a livery. Pictures below

As reported by Steven Cole Smith on Grassroots Racing.

In Daytona last year, the team announced on Saturday evening, less than a third of the way to the race, that it was sold out.

“SOLD OUT: Our entire stock of merchandise at Daytona is sold out. If you missed out, please continue to shop at aoracing.com/store. We’ve got lots more stock coming and are fulfilling orders as fast as our little T-Rex arms can go!”

So it does more work than simply a branding exercise. They are also the highest-followed Instagram account with 166,000 followers

Mind you, their debut season was in 2023.

And their partners consist of:

The Rexy and Roxy mascots came from the founders’ kids.

Steven Cole Smith on Grassroots Racing reported that,

“It’s all the result of team driver and co-owner P.J. Hyett’s modest way of honouring his children: He had his helmet painted with a dragon on one side for his son and a unicorn on the other side for his daughter. It was a small step from there to make characters out of their cars.”

Another IMSA team, Pfaff Motorsports, a Canadian team, leaned on our cultural identity. Specifically in fashion. It’s a pretty short list, and we are known for wearing plaid. Usually red-and-black plaid wool.

Laurance Yap (my old boss), creative director for Pfaff Automotive Partners, says it all happened because of pure observations of what the team was wearing in the shop that day.

Arsenal’s Gunnersaurus came from a fan competition. You see the pattern here?

Some of these are happy accidents.

But as marketers, this is part of the job. We are supposed to keep our eyes and ears open for interesting observations and look for what is already happening in culture so we can iterate on it for what we do.

I don’t think you can manufacture this in a lab during a brand workshop day, but you can put clear intention behind it.

Distinctive assets compound over many years, and committing to them is risky and uncomfortable. Which is exactly why you should do it. This is attainable.

The best way to test this is to do it internally by running small tests with Slack channels. Run small creatives with your private groups or fan clubs.

A mascot is the easiest place to start. It can be a strong visual identity. Things like vocabulary, aesthetics, or a wireframe logo. Maybe it’s a jingle or a distinctive voice like The Onion.

For example, for this newsletter and what I do.

I chose “Your Friendly Neighbourhood Sports Marketing Guy” to describe myself after watching Spider-Man. I also rewrote my welcome email after watching the first Iron Man movie, specifically using the screenplay after he launches the Jericho Missile.

My movie taste has more range than just Marvel movies btw.

I chose The Commercial Table name because it’s tangible. I can iterate on the name and build products from it.

For example, my private sports marketing group chat - The First Seat. Please email me if you want to join.

Pick a Lane and stick with it, with intensity.