The Mission-Driven Mascot

Mascots are used to represent corporations, sports teams, small businesses, non-profit organizations, and schools. School mascots are extremely popular, especially for colleges and universities, but you may be wondering whether your high school needs one. We understand that a custom mascot is a large investment, but here are five reasons why a high school mascot costume is worth every penny.

1. Identity

Sure, your school has an identity of its own, but more often than not, your school’s nickname or team name is what people remember most. Your school’s mascot is crucial when creating an identity for your high school—students and faculty identify themselves as the “team name”. When opponents or community members see your mascot, they need to easily associate it with your school. Even if you already use a digital mascot for online branding purposes and print materials, creating a physical mascot costume brings your school’s identity to life.

2. Entertainment

Mascot characters are notoriously known for entertaining audiences of all ages. Your school mascot would draw the audience’s attention and would bring your school assemblies, pep rallies, and sports games to the next level. Incorporating your school’s team mascot with your spirit program also allows your character to serve as the head cheerleader and be the face of your school’s spirit efforts. Whether your mascot would dance, run through the crowd, give out promotional items, or interact with the opposing team’s mascot; your students, fans, and community will look forward to seeing and interacting with your school mascot.

Mascots for any organization are super important for engagement both in person and on social media. Engaging students, faculty, and the community with your school mascot is vital in creating an inviting and fun atmosphere at your school. To increase community engagement with your school, you can bring your high school mascot to public events in the community such as parades, fundraisers, and more! In addition, you can also promote engagement with your school mascot on social media through announcements and promotions. By having your mascot present in the community, you increase your school’s brand awareness and recognition, and you have a constant advertising tool!

A school mascot costume is not only important for external engagement but internal engagement as well. You can start engaging your students early by including them in the design process of your custom mascot, perhaps have them choose the name. You can also try to engage students by hosting tryouts to choose a student mascot performer! (Not sure how to choose a mascot performer? Check out this blog!) In addition, you can have your mascot serve as your school’s representative to deliver important messages which would increase student interest and engagement in those messages and are easily promoted on social media for added engagement.

4. Connection With Students

Yes, mascots play an integral role in your school’s spirit department, but they aren’t just important for sports. Your mascot provides a common label for all students, alumni, and faculty―it creates a sense of belonging. Your school mascot unites everyone under one name, makes everyone feel included, and connects students to each other and to the school. Teachers change, students change, but your high school mascot will remain constant and will always be remembered.

5. Make You Stand Out

Many high schools are in the same boat: they are unsure whether they need a custom mascot costume. Though having a high school mascot costume won’t necessarily make you better, it will make you unique. Creating a professional mascot costume for your high school will show your dedication to your school and make you stand out. In 2019, Olympus Mascots created a muscleman mascot costume for Marion High School. The athletic director at Marion explained that their mascot, Stretch, helps immensely with recruiting open enrollment students because it really shows what the school is about and draws students in. Read more about Marion’s school mascot and the impact it’s had on the school in our feature story.

These five benefits to having a custom mascot costume prove that designing and producing a mascot for your high school will be worth it. We understand that custom mascot costumes are a huge investment, which is why we created a blog all about mascot prices to give you more of an idea of what to expect. If you are looking for other tips and tricks regarding the design or use of a mascot costume, click here to view articles featured on our blog, or click here to view customer testimonials.