The Power of a Brand Mascot - SEOMoz

[kchandler]

Last year i attended Mozcon out in Seattle and it was an awesome experience plus they gave us tons of awesome giveaways with Roger on it. One of the items was a mug with Roger waving.

For the last few weeks my wife, who is a special education teacher in Cleveland Ohio, has been using it everyday. Then one day her students noticed the robot on the mug and were totally obsessed with him to the point that i gathered up all the other roger stuff i had from the conference (key chain, magnets  etc) and gave them to her to use as prizes.

The kids loved it, they had tons of questions like what the robot did, which at that point my wife attempted to explain how roger works with search engines like Google. None-the-less it showed how awesome a brand can be if it can transcend from it's target market to even children - so cool!

So i guess my question would be, do you guys have any more Roger swag i can get for these kids?

Thanks! - Kyle

[KeriMorgret]

Kyle, we'd love to send you and your wife more Roger swag! Can you please send an email to community@seomoz.org and include a mailing address? Please let us know when school is out for the year so we can be sure it gets there in time.

Also, thanks for sharing this lovely story. I've worked in special education in the past, and originally was going to be an occupational therapist. This warms my heart.

[jesse-landry]

Hey this is pretty awesome, Kyle. Thanks for sharing it. I'm literally in the middle of ordering a ton of company branded swag for our sales and promotions team to take with them to trade shows and industry conferences this Summer.

If I may do a slight hijack of this thread (now that you've gotten the desired result from the lovely Keri), I'd like to get people's opinions on what works the best for this type of loot.

So far I've ordered:

• stress reliever balls (my guys like to juggle and toss balls at people wandering trade shows to lure them into the booths so this was a must.)

• mouse pads (there's some debate over whether anybody even uses mouse pads anymore..? our office is split darn near 50/50.. you?)

• LED flashlight keychains

...That's it for now. What do you all think is the best and most cost effective promotional item to give away.. what would you go out of your way at a tradeshow to snag, etc..?

It's that time of year so I feel like this is an interesting topic relevant to marketing, which most of us seem to be working in.

Last but not least, I am officially signed up and registered for Mozcon this year and am incredibly thankful that my employer found it worthwhile to sponsor my attendance and send me up there. (it helps that I live in the Seattle area of course..) Can't wait to get some moz swag myself and learn/meet/greet!

[kchandler]

Kerri - this is awesome! My wife and her students are going to be so excited! I will send something via email shortly. Thank you again!

[promotionsnow]

Hey Jesse:

So...this question is kinda in my wheelhouse Don't wanna be "Spammy-Sam" but...

I would try to find a giveaway that matches who you are / what you do. Quick Google search of InsynQ and I can give some suggestions:

In recent months, Styli / Stylus ( i am never sure if the plural is in fact Styli  ) has been very popular..and very affordable.

http://www.promotionsnow.com/browse/styluses-and-styli_32985/default.aspx

Personally, I like keychain-things ( like bottle openers ) and less desktop stuff...I guess things I would actually use.

By the way, I am heading out to MozCon for the 1st time as well! Cant wait!

[jesse-landry]

Thanks Keith! I dig these suggestions and will look into them further. Appreciate the feedback!

[KeriMorgret]

Hi Kyle,

I stumbled on this old question while looking for something else. How did the school year wind up for you? Does you wife still have enough Roger gear this school year?

[kchandler]

Keri, i'm soo glad you posted on this, my wife and i completely forgot to get you guys a response back. In short the kids loved it! My wife wasn't able to get parent approval for a picture so instead she had each one of her students write a thank you card/questions for roger. Which turned out equally as funny as cute (for some reason they all thought roger knew the president?). We will get them scanned in and over to you guys ASAP.

Thanks again for the reminder and the roger swag

[KeriMorgret]

Oh, we would love that! We print that type of thing out and tape it to the wall here. Thanks so much, we're looking forward to it!

[kchandler]

Hey Keri, i wanted to touch base. We mailed all of the original letters to you guys last week, wanted to see if you received them?

[KeriMorgret]

Hi Kyle,

Thanks so much for the letters. We did get them, and we love them! We're working on making some type of poster out of them for the office. Thank you!

[kchandler]

Awesome, im glad you guys enjoyed it, i know the kids enjoyed their roger swag