They are so CUTE !
The five mascots of the 2008 Beijing Olympics have been presented as five lovely characters, a Fish, a Panda, a Fire Demon, a Tibetan Antelope and a Swallow.
As well as representing the five Olympic rings (one for each continent), they also symbolize five categories of sports (the Fish for aquatic sports ands the Antelope for track and field) and are linked to the Traditional Five Elements (wu xing) of nature enumerated by Chinese philosophy.
More over, their names, Bei bei, Jing jing, Huan huan, Ying Ying and Ni ni can be transposed to “Beijing Huanying Ni”, “Beijing welcomes you” in Mandarin.
Characters linked to Olympic symbols and to Chinese Philosophy, moreover giving a mnemotechnic welcome message. “Hen hao !” would I say with my budding Mandarin. “Very good”. What is even better is that the five characters are cute.
Cute is a key element of Communication Strategy
In fact, being cute is a key element of brand communication, and forgetting about it can cost dearly. Take the example of Goleo. Goleo was the mascot of the 2006 FIFA World Cup held in Germany.
His Majesty Edson Arantes de Nascimiento with Goleo.
An unbeatable team … on paper
Despite being introduced in 2004 by soccer gods Pele and Franz Beckenbauer, Goleo could not engage the crowds on an emotional level. Designed by The Jim Hanson Company, the derivated toys representing the German mascot did not sell well. NCI, the Bavarian toy maker who had purchased the licensing rights to the character, filed for bankruptcy in May 2006.
The mistake: Taking an adult lion
Forget about the controversies about choosing a Lion, the national emblem of Britain, for an event set in Germany. Nobody really yearned to see a German Eagle strutting around in a global sports event, not after 70 years…
The first problem was that Goleo appeared as a adult lion, characterized by his long snout and small eyes, and of course, his royal mane. Adult lions are not generally considered as sympathetic animals. They are fierce and carnivorous. They are strong, fast and aggressive.
In Western imagery, because of their loud and aggressive mating behavior, Lions are symbols of sexual power. Suddenly, the idea of an adult lion running around pantless does not seem very likely to be a crowd pleaser…
Goleo, No Fear, No Pants…
(the gaze of the ball below makes this even funnier…)
The smart move by the Beijing Olympics branding team has been to select baby animals as mascots. With round shapes, proportionally big heads and short members and big eyes, mascots look like baby animals. They are neotenic, looking like new borns.
CUTE sells… a lot !
What is good marketing wise is that neotenic translates into “cute”, and cute is attractive. Human instinct brings us to protect and nurture our kin when it shows neotenic features. We are naturally attracted to babies, and this also goes for baby animals.
Neoteny is a global marketing constant, especially in entertainment. The Japanese concept of “kawai”, with icons such as Hello Kitty and Hamtaro drive millions of dollars in royalties and derived products sales.
Hamtaro: any cuter, you die
(probably from high blood sugar)
By creating five energetic and easy to love characters, the branding team of Beijing 2008 tapped into a global trend that seems to guarantee that Derived product and toys sales around the event will be strong.
That is, if quality control for the manufacturing of the toys is enforced correctly…
Copyright: Alfred LARGANGE – August 2007
