Mascots across Canadian events, teams and seasons: how solid

Updated November 2026

Published research links mascots to awareness, attitude and purchase intention, but the strongest paper we could read rests on 568 respondents in one country, and a famous school-lunch study had to be corrected. Canadian organisers can use the findings as a guide to design, not as a forecast.

A short audit before any promise

Organisers of winter carnivals, minor hockey leagues, agricultural fairs and company anniversaries all ask the same thing: is a character worth the effort? We went looking for Canadian data and found none that meets our standard. What exists comes from India, Turkey, Taiwan, Pakistan, Malaysia and the United States.

This article therefore audits the evidence instead of announcing a result. For each paper we say who was asked, how many, what was measured, and what a reader should not conclude. The bilingual reality of many Canadian audiences adds a further caution: none of these studies tested a message in two languages.

A model with 568 respondents

What was tested

Reddy B and Sathish, writing in Advances in Decision Sciences in 2023, used a hybrid research approach and SmartPLS analysis on 568 respondents in India. They examined brand awareness, brand personification and self-congruence as drivers of attitude towards advertising and of purchase intention when a brand mascot supports the message.

What they found

They report positive associations among all of these, with the effect especially visible in food. The authors themselves note limits and suggest studying more industries and contexts.

Reading it in Canada

Self-congruence is the notion that people prefer a brand that resembles how they see themselves. For a team or a seasonal event, that points to a character who looks like the region and the crowd. The paper does not say which design choices produce it.

Turkey, Taiwan and Pakistan: three smaller pieces

In Turkey, Deligöz and Ünal (2021) reported from survey data collected in Erzurum that an anthropomorphic mascot affected purchasing intention positively, along with brand image, value, identity, personality, experience and engagement.

In Taiwan, the master's thesis by Liao (2024) used a made-up home-fragrance brand and found no significant effect of the mascot's degree of anthropomorphism or sexiness on attitude, relationship or trust. The study is a reminder that a character can be neutral.

In Pakistan, Shuja and co-authors (2016) used a classification and regression tree on answers from pre-primary children in nine Karachi schools. Liking the animated character was tied to recognising the product and the character and to brand preference.

Sport: attachment and new audiences

Two sport papers matter for teams. Schultz and Sheffer (2017) surveyed 3,616 university students and found that mascot loyalty was strongly related to fan identification. Ko and colleagues (2022) ran an experiment with 239 potential fans and found that a mascot, compared with a logo, increased psychological closeness and media consumption intentions.

Neither used a Canadian club, but both concern the situation of a team seeking sympathy, one among existing supporters and the other among newcomers.

When a well-known result is corrected

The Elmo apple experiment was widely reported as proof that a character can shift children's choices. In September 2017, a retraction and replacement notice in JAMA Pediatrics said the study design had been misdescribed because children were offered an apple or a cookie, not both, and that the total was 615 observations, not 1,040. The authors replaced one-tailed tests with a generalised estimating equation model and kept their overall conclusion. We mention the case because it shows how a result can change after reading the data again. We do not use its figures.

Limits we apply to everything above

Self-reported intention is not purchase. Convenience samples are not populations. A study in Mumbai or Erzurum is not Moncton. No large multi-market field experiment exists in what we read, so no average uplift is given here.

What it means for a Canadian organiser

The prudent translation is about design and use. Choose a character that fits the event or the team's identity, in the colours of the jersey or the festival, with the logo and any text the client wants. Decide the seasonal calendar: indoor arenas in January, parades in summer, back-to-school fairs in September, each demanding different fabric weight and ventilation.

If the audience is bilingual, put the lettering through a language check before it is sewn. And set one measure you can count, such as attendance at a family day with the mascot, compared with the previous edition. Custom mascots are made to the client's approved sketch.

One further point concerns timing. A seasonal programme has fixed dates, so an order placed late can miss the first event. Agree the design, the lettering and the delivery window at the start, and allow time to try the costume on the person who will wear it. A mascot that fits badly is worn for fewer hours, and the audience sees less of it. None of the studies above addresses this practical side, which is why we raise it here alongside the findings rather than inside them.

Finally, keep a short record after each event: date, weather, location, number of appearances, and what you counted. After a season, you will have your own Canadian figures, which are worth more to your next decision than any foreign survey.

Sources

• Reddy B and Sathish, Advances in Decision Sciences, 2023
• Deligöz and Ünal, Sosyoekonomi, 2021
• Liao, National Chengchi University thesis, 2024
• Shuja et al., MPRA working paper, 2016
• Schultz and Sheffer, Sport in Society, 2017
• Ko et al., Sport Management Review, 2022
• JAMA Pediatrics retraction and replacement notice, 2017

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