Creating a Cartoon Character for Your Website – Will It Stick?
In today’s market of stiff corporate competition, it’s more important than ever to create an effective online marketing strategy. Often, this involves finding a way to set your website’s image apart from those of your top competitors.
To achieve this, some companies have created cartoon characters to represent their online identities. If executed correctly, this strategy can help retain website traffic and develop a unique corporate identity. The following are 3 examples of companies that have effectively used this cartoon character strategy.
Top 3 Cartoon Examples
Fatburgr
Fatbugr’s cartooned website portrays a great execution of this cartoon character strategy. The website’s cartoon icon of a fat boy eating a large hamburger makes visitors feel guilty about the fast food they eat and encourages them to dig further into the website’s information.
Code Button
Code Button provides another great example of proper cartoon usage. By identifying their target market and taking a comical spin on their identity, Code Button’s developers offer a light spin on the career of coding.
Jason Reed: Web Design
Jason Reed showcases how a cartooned version of oneself can help avoid an entrepreneur from coming across as pretentious by using traditional headshots. Jason Reed’s cartoon allows website visitors to learn more about him while still maintaining a degree of mystery regarding the freelancer’s identity.
BrandWood
Other Examples:
iAdvize
Mediocore
StoneSkipper
NybbleTech
Best Website Cartoon Practices
When considering creating a cartoon character for your website, there are certain best practices you should follow. By doing this, you will avoid the most common mistakes made by other companies and incorporate a successful cartoon identity. Here are the best practices to follow with this type project:
- Hire a Professional Designer – Whether you plan to create a cartoon version of yourself for your website or develop a unique character, hire a professional designer to complete the job. Various tutorials exist online regarding how to create a cartoon without any previous experience but the results are often less than desirable.
- Make it Appropriate – A major mistake of companies using website cartoon characters is that they become carried away with the cartoon’s identity. Don’t make the character over the top or completely off-base from the products you are selling. An obnoxious cartoon character will, more often than not, drive visitors away from the website rather than encourage them to read more about your services.
- Test the Cartoon – Before releasing the new cartoon identity to the general online public, conduct polls with a small segment of customers. This testing phase can indicate the overall response you can expect from the general public regarding the character and whether or not this is a good move for your brand identity.
Building a successful corporate identity is of utmost importance when building an online customer base. If your current corporate identity isn’t achieving the desired results, it may be time for a change. Cartoon character identities, when developed correctly, can invite potential customers into your website to learn more about the products and services you offer. If met with positive public response, you may even decide to adopt this character as your company’s long-term mascot.
Aimee Sway blogs for PrintExpress.co.uk, the premiere business cards company. Follow her on Twitter @PrintExpressUK and like on Facebook!
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Cool ones!
yeah I love to have some sweet looking cartoon characters on website where its relevant. I did one like too http://preludetraining.com
Thanks for the post!
Raj
Some awesome examples here, LOVE the: Mediocore site :)
Thanks for posting
@mgpwr
This is a fantastic article. We use a mascot in areas of our site and after reading this I’ve noticed that we have allot of work left to match these sites!
Jack
Great examples. MailChimp is another example of a cartoon character that seems to work exceptionally well for a company too.
Another cool character is this frog called George on http://www.efrogthemes.com – definitely worth having a look at him :)
While I personally love cartoons, most people I know who are my age do not. I’d be careful using cartoon characters — they give a website a rather childish appearance, which not everyone will take seriously.
Hah. This is a timely post – the president of our company and I have been discussing making our “mascot” (the owners adorable dog, Kramer) more of a figurehead of the company. I never thought about turning her into a cartoon, brilliant.
agree totally 100% with what Jodi said…
Fantastic article and the sites are great. Really put a smile on my face : D
Jodi – I think in some aspects you’re right, a website with cartoons can be construed as childish however, most people looking for a designer will be pulled in by the skill, colour and nice familiar feel of cartoons – providing your portfolio is up to scratch. And lets not forget there are many disciplines and styles of designers out there if that’s their angle then its a good niche to start.
Nice piece! I created Gregg for a consultancy company which seemed a silly combo but works fantastic. Gregg can do and say things the company can’t and thus adds a good value. They use him for presentations and we ended up doing a weekly cartoon: http://www.whatthegregg.com
Done right, a cartoon character works, even for consultants.
Thanks for the great idea. I hadn’t thought of a cartoon character of yourself as being a way to help customers relate to you better, but they are less imposing than a photograph – this is something I will have to try for myself :)
Fantastic post, love all the exceptional artwork, wish graphic design was one of my stronger assets.
You gotta check out the one I have been using on Tiffinbox – http://www.tiffinbox.org – happens to be a caricature of ME … personalizing your cartoon character is a huge plus. I recommend it!
Hi Thanks for a really interesting post, I agree that a cartoon character can often add a sense of personalisation to your brand and site, they can often encourage customers to interact more and familierise themselves with a site. If created correctly your cartoon character will keep your customers coming back!
Great post! Creating a unique cartoon character can be very effective for increasing company brand identity.