Remember the five Beijing Olympic mascots? Apparently the fuwa, or 'good luck dolls' in Chinese, representing four of the country's favourite animals and the Olympic flame, did not quite have the impact they were meant to – which was to promote friendship and peace ahead of the Games.
In fact, reports are surfacing that a poll by research firm Nielsen Company in early June found that as many as 40 per cent of Chinese people either disliked the fuwa or were indifferent towards them. Some even went as far as to say they were bad omens and brought natural calamities to China this year.
Whatever the case may be, in an increasingly crowded world, where consumers are being bombarded from all sides, going beyond just smart graphics and logos can take your company or establishment a long way. And so can having a mascot.
Rob Curtis, a Dubai-based creative designer, says mascots can be beneficial to a company's image.
"It can help identify a brand in certain circumstances that are difficult to enhance visually," he says. "I think it's a really interesting area and hard to know what people's thoughts are and therefore how successful mascots are."
Curtis has spent the past 15 years promoting the identities of television programmes and was previously head of graphics at ITV in the United Kingdom.
Dubai Summer Surprises (DSS) has its own mascot in Modhesh, based on a jack in the box, which incorporates the smile and sunbeams previously used by the DSS marketing team.
Laila Suhail, CEO of the Dubai Shopping Festival (DSF), which looks after both DSS and DSF, says the yellow, spring-like character has certainly helped create awareness about the festival. First appearing in 2000, two years after DSS began, Modhesh has bolstered the event's theme, 'Big Fun For Little Ones', she adds.
"It has been very important and has brought to life the DSS slogan," she says. "When we launched DSS the focus was very much on the children. But now, with Dubai developing so much each year, summers have changed and we now cater for adults with spa packages and other deals."
From friendly animals or cartoon characters, mascots, say marketers, can have a significant impact on the success of a business and add to its appeal.
"I think the main benefit is being able to develop a persona by association with the mascot that you can then further associate to whatever you market," Curtis says.
"For example, associating the ferocity of a lion to a sporting club is an easy example – you give the club a persona that fans can identify with in ways that the name might not.
The key word here, says Curtis, is differentiation. "The development of a persona is therefore key and in this sense the mascot is another tool in the common marketing goal of differentiation," he says. "The persona of a brand is being developed alongside the logos, avatars and verbal and visual language, and asks: 'What is different about you and how will I recognise you?'
"When marketing to children, for example, association helps to give an identity that is difficult to visualise. So we could have flaky, the Frosties' Flake, or a tiger or a monkey. These associations are often stimuli that children can recognise easily."
From Merrill Lynch's bull, which has come to represent strength and bullishness, to Michelin's Bibendum or Michelin Man – the legendary stack of tyres representing a human form – mascots can prove to be an asset to a company, or on the flip side, be forgotten sooner than later, says the designer.
It remains to be seen exactly how Beibei the fish, Jingjing the panda, Huanhuan the Olympic flame, Yingying the antelope and Nini the swallow will go down in the annals of Olympic history, but Dubai companies should not overlook their importance as a marketing tool says Curtis, especially in a "consumer city" such as Dubai. "I can't think of any mascot that has made an impact in the UAE, but maybe this will change in the future as businesses look at ways of enhancing their profile," he says.