Brand characters, such as the Pillsbury Doughboy or KFC’s Colonel Sanders, have been used on packages, television commercials, print ads and signboards, for ages. They strike an emotional chord with prospective customers, and provide instant brand recognition. When using these brand characters in the digital marketing sphere, which is an interactive space, it is important for digital marketing professionals to consider the audience’s expectations of the particular brand and character.

Below are some do’s for you:

• Do use separate voices for the character and the brand, with the character’s voice expressing emotional benefits, and the brand’s voice stating rational benefits.
• Do ensure that you research the brand character from a deep emotional level. Learn about its personality, and what things it can/cannot say or do. This will make the brand character credible, especially on digital marketing channels like Facebook, where strong levels of fan engagement is expected. Create a brief describing the character’s personality in detail, and make sure that your digital marketing team stays true to the character while replying to online messages etc.
• Do research. Collect and analyse different digital marketing metrics, to learn about the type of value the brand character is bringing to the business.
• Do consider other digital marketing elements that could represent the character, like audio and video. Think of what, where and how to share.
• Do take care while translating a character, for the first time, into an animated one that speaks. Ensure that you capture the essence of the character, by writing suitable dialogues and selecting the right voice-over artist. Once you launch it, this style will have to be consistently followed over all digital marketing platforms. Avoid generating a creepy quality in these animations.
• Do check if the brand character has a history and if so, try and feature it in the digital marketing medium.
• Do watch out for trends in growth and usage.
• Do plan for improper use of your brand character. Once your assets are online, strangers may misuse them for cruel or perverse purposes. Think ahead and formulate a plan on how to respond if your asset is being corrupted.
• Do make an attempt to connect the brand character with the product/service you are selling. Ensure that such a connection brings back value to the company, through calls-to-action that can be measured, such as clicks, likes etc.

Qudos Digital is a leading digital marketing agency, and can be contacted on 0845 388 5583 or info@qudosdigital.co.uk.