Go Octocat!
More on why mascots matter.
Last week I wrote about Salesforce’s cast of lovable (and swagable) characters.
Which led me down a stuffed animal rabbit hole where I found GitHub’s Octocat.
I knew that GitHub’s logo was a little cat figure, but I had no idea how they had activated the concept so completely — including swag. Here’s a little Wikipedia history on how Octocat came to be:
GitHub’s mascot is an anthropomorphized “octocat” with five octopus-like arms. The character was created by graphic designer Simon Oxley as clip art to sell on iStock. GitHub became interested in Oxley’s work after Twitter selected a bird that he designed for their own logo. The illustration GitHub chose was a character that Oxley had named Octopuss.
GitHub renamed Octopuss to Octocat, and trademarked the character along with the new name. Later, GitHub hired illustrator Cameron McEfee to adapt Octocat for different purposes on the website and promotional materials.
McEfee and various GitHub users have since created hundreds of variations of the character, which are available on The Octodex.
And here are a few of my favorites from The Octodex…
So, continuing down the Octocat trail, there are thousands (thousands!) of GitHub swag unboxing videos on YouTube.
Here’s one that represents a lot of what I saw…
I didn’t watch all the available videos (of course) but the ones I did watch had three things in common that you can use the next time you’re thinking about sending a swag box:
My take on GitHub’s Swag Box approach:
· Send to an active community member as a delighter (aka surprise)
· Have an anchor (aka consistent items like the Octocat plushie)
· Mix of “high” and “low” items (gold awards/figurines and stickers)
I also wrote about the art of employee swag boxes (and the data behind them) in Swag Rules -And Employees Do Too.
Call-to-Action
A lot of inspiration for Swag Rules comes from outside of the financial services industry; make sure you’re following folks at companies that are known to be great places to work (because chances are HIGH they have a strong swag game).
I’m starting to follow employees of the companies on Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For (IT Industry) and I am getting so many ideas!
What’s Next?
We are officially INTO custom Crocs; look for more info soon.
