Could a mascot be your next growth hack? (Dave’s Newsletter)

WHAT WE'RE HEARING

Does Your B2B Brand Need a Mascot?

Everything is crowded today. The inbox is busy. Everyone has a podcast. There’s so many events. We all feel it. It’s become harder than ever to stand out. And with AI, the last great moat is going to be building a brand – to get attention, to stand out, to get people to know you and be willing to try you out. Which got me thinking about mascots…something I never thought I’d be writing about here. But last week I had Jess Cook (VP Marketing at Vector) on my podcast, and they created this little mascot that is seemingly everywhere now and that got us thinking: could mascots be the next big growth hack in B2B? So we took it to our community to find out what marketers are really thinking and for this edition of the newsletter we went deep. Here's what both sides have to say.

In consumer marketing, mascots are everywhere.

You know GEICO because of the gecko. The Energizer Bunny has been going strong since 1989. Tony the Tiger has been selling Frosted Flakes since your parents were kids.

These characters work. They stick in your brain.

But in B2B? Mascots are pretty rare….

So why don't more B2B companies have mascots?

Are they a smart way to build brand recall? Or just a gimmicky distraction?

Let's find out if a mascot could be your next growth hack.

Team Mascot: This Startup Just Stole The Ghost Emoji From Snapchat

A handful of B2B companies are betting big on mascots. And it's working.

Vector's Ghosty is the poster child for B2B mascots done right

When Jess Cook joined Vector as VP of Marketing, the ghost was already part of the brand (created by CEO Josh Perk). But Jess recognized it could be the thing they lean into everywhere.

Now? People tell her when they see a ghost emoji, they think of Vector – not Snapchat.

That's insane. A pre-Series A startup is stealing a cultural icon from a multi-billion dollar company just by showing up consistently.

Here's how they do it:

• Ghosty is in every ad, every LinkedIn post, every piece of content
• Jess comments on LinkedIn posts as the ghost (she calls it one of her favorite parts of the job)
• They're planning 'Ghost Tours' – an event series where they'll take prospects and customers to nice dinners followed by actual ghost tours in different cities
• The mascot is tied directly to their value prop: revealing the anonymous "ghosts" visiting your website

Other B2B companies crushing it with mascots

Fibbler: Their pink lion shows up everywhere – ads, organic posts, website, product. Adam (the Co-founder and CEO) says it's "the best distinctive brand asset in the world" and credits it as one of the reasons for their early growth. His take? "It's way easier to remember something distinctive like a pink lion than a person."

PostHog: Max the hedgehog. PostHog made their first non-engineering hire a graphic designer specifically to build a distinctive brand around Max. The founders decided early: 'We're not going to win by being the same as everyone else's boring blue websites.' Now Max shows up in different outfits across their site, merch, and marketing – and has become synonymous with the brand.

Commsor: The dinosaur happened by accident. Someone misspelled "Commsor" as "Commsaur" and the team ran with it. Mac Reddin, the Founder & CEO admits there was no master plan or deep meaning: "We just liked it, and thought it was fun, relatable, and memorable."

Here's the strongest argument from the pro-mascot camp:

Mascots create instant brand recall in a way that's hard for competitors to copy. One person in an Exit Five thread put it perfectly: "There are SO many times I remember the mascot/branding instead of the name of a company when referring them to potential prospects. The ghost tracking thing (Vector). The dinosaur guys (Commsor). The Lion LinkedIn ads guys (Fibbler)."

For smaller players without big budgets or household names, that kind of mental shortcut is huge.

Team NO Mascot: People Remember People, Not Cartoons

"Mascots try to create familiarity without accountability. People do the opposite."

"I can name the founders of a dozen tools I use but couldn't tell you a single mascot if my life depended on it."

"You don't need an owl to sell me software, bro."

Here's the skeptics' argument…

Try this test: Do you remember Salesforce's mascot? Most people don't even know Salesforce has one. But everyone knows Marc Benioff.

Recognition does NOT equal trust

One marketer nailed the distinction: "Mascots create recall. People create conviction. You might recognize Mailchimp's Freddie. But you trust HubSpot because you've heard Dharmesh Shah think out loud for years."

In B2B, trust often matters more than memorability. A visible founder sharing lessons, admitting mistakes, and showing their thinking builds credibility in a way a cartoon character never can.

Your founder is free

How much time, energy, and money should you actually invest in a mascot? How do you give it a consistent point of view? How do you make it memorable enough that it adds real incremental value to your growth engine?

For many companies, especially early-stage ones with limited resources, betting on founder/executive visibility just makes more sense. The founder's already there. They already have a point of view. They already understand the product deeply.

Most brands can’t pull it off without being cringey

Multiple marketers said mascots feel gimmicky or "not serious enough" for enterprise buyers. One person summed it up with: "Most brands can't carry this one without being cringe."

Getting it right means a level of commitment most brands don’t have

Even people who like mascots admit most companies do it wrong. They create a character, slap it on the website, and move on. One marketer put it bluntly: "The problem is half-assing it. You've got to lean all the way in – full integration. Most companies don't want to make that big of a bet on their brand."

The bottom line from Team No Mascot? Invest in visible leadership. Build personal brands. Show up consistently. That's what people remember.

Maybe The Real Question Isn't 'Should We Have A Mascot?’

Mascots aren’t the answer for everyone. But we shouldn’t dismiss them as "not serious" or "too consumer-y" for B2B.

Here's what the successful mascot companies have in common: they committed fully.

You can't half-ass a mascot. It either becomes a core part of your brand or it's a waste of time.

And here's the thing nobody talks about: CEO buy-in isn't just helpful – it's everything.

If your CEO thinks mascots are silly or won't champion it internally, don’t even try.

So should every B2B company rush out and create a mascot tomorrow? No.

But in a world where AI makes everything easier to produce, brand recall matters more than ever. Whether that's through a mascot, a visible founder, or both, you need something that makes people remember you exist.

– Dave

P.S. Do you have a mascot for your company? Are you thinking about it? Do you think they're genius or cringe? Hit reply and tell me. I'm genuinely curious where you land on this. I’ve been trying to tell Dan (my CEO) that we need an Exit Five mascot ASAP but he just is not a believer…what should the E5 mascot be??

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