Once considered outdated or overly cutesy, brand mascots are enjoying a renaissance. In just the past year, Domino’s Pizza unveiled Mac Scott—a seven-foot-tall penne-shaped character promoting its pasta offerings—while Hotels.com announced Bellboy, an anthropomorphic hotel desk bell. Japanese candy maker Hi-Chew debuted Chewbie, its first-ever official mascot. 

The return of the branding tool isn’t without cause: as digital marketing increasingly bombards our screens, research shows mascots can effectively cut through the noise, boosting brand recall by 37 per cent. For Francois Cote, however, the founder and CEO of Fig Financial, a Montreal-based digital loan provider, introducing his mascot Figgy wasn’t about following a passing trend—it was a carefully considered strategy. 

Cote had launched Fig in 2023 with a mission to simplify the lending experience and make it less daunting. Instead of waiting days or even weeks for loan approval from traditional banks, Fig customers could secure a loan online within 10 minutes. However, despite the proposed ease and speed of its digital-only model, Cote and his team faced a significant branding challenge: without face-to-face interactions with customers, they lacked the ability to form personal connections that traditional banks have. “We don’t have a Sandra at the cashier desk at the branch that you go and chat with every day,” says Monisha Sharma, Fig’s chief revenue officer.

They were also up against financial service giants with deeper pockets and decades of brand recognition thanks to massive advertising budgets and national sponsorship deals. To effectively bridge these gaps, Cote and Sharma began exploring new brand strategies in late 2024. “We looked at different approaches—spokesperson-led, ‘real person’-led, and mascot-led,” says Cote, who gave Sharma the job of leading the team in finding the best path forward. 

For the spokesperson route—which typically involves a celebrity—one name on Sharma’s wishlist was Canadian actor Simu Liu. But that option came with a hefty price tag. The “real-person” approach, which features everyday customers, felt more authentic and budget-friendly, but it would be difficult to stand out within what Cote calls a “sea of sameness” in today’s TikTok-saturated market of testimonials. Mascot-led branding, by contrast, offered the best of both worlds: it was more affordable than a celebrity spokesperson, more distinctive than “real-person” storytelling, and backed by research showing a significant uptick in brand recall.

The first step was deciding what their mascot would look and sound like, which meant deciding on the tone and style they wanted to strike. Sharma’s team drew inspiration from the intense pressure that often comes with borrowing money. “For a lot of established financial institutions, there definitely tends to be a paternalistic communication style, like you’re going to the bank of Mom and Dad and asking for permission to access financial products,” says Sharma.

Then there was the embarrassment that many people feel when seeking a loan—as if it’s an admission of weakness or failure. Sharma recalls a customer appreciation event at Fig’s Toronto office in which one satisfied customer said he wanted to recommend it to friends but felt awkward admitting that he himself needed a loan or insinuating that others might. Recognizing these social pressures and stigmas became central to Sharma’s mascot strategy: an approach that would be more friendly, accessible, and infused with humour to counter the seriousness and anxiety surrounding debt and loans.

To create Figgy—a name which originally came from the Fig website chatbot—Sharma studied successful examples across industries that used humour-focused campaigns, including the GEICO Gecko, Flo from Progressive Insurance and Mint Mobile’s ads featuring a wry Ryan Reynolds. To further bring Figgy to life, Cote and Sharma hired a Los Angeles-based video production company that managed both the casting of an actor and the design of the costume. The result: an oversized green fig leaf suit that not only nodded to the company’s name but also alluded to the “original shame” from the biblical story of Adam and Eve, reflecting Fig’s mission to remove the stigma around borrowing.

Together, the two companies began working on three comedic commercials featuring Figgy in relatably embarrassing situations. “Our customer demographic is mainly millennials, who typically understand and appreciate cringe comedy,” Sharma says. Developing those scenarios required extensive brainstorming, and Sharma knew that some colleagues—many with backgrounds in fintech—might feel uneasy venturing into creative territory. But a humour-first approach helped ease those concerns. “Humour is the quickest way to cut through anything, and anybody can crack a joke,” she says. In the end, the scenarios were inspired by real-life cringe-worthy moments shared by her team.

One commercial depicts a young man unintentionally farting in the middle of doing an awkward pose in a yoga studio, while another captures the mortifying realization that a revealing photo meant for a significant other has been sent to everyone at your work. In each scenario, a friendly and chipper Figgy pops up at the peak moment of humiliation to share one of Fig’s core messages: financial management shouldn’t make inevitable embarrassments worse. And each commercial also ends with Figgy offering comforting words, such as “Nobody noticed” or “At least your boss wasn’t on”, before jokingly revealing that those reassurances were untrue.

Since launching a revamped website featuring Figgy photos and video content in March, Fig has experienced a 40 per cent boost in web traffic. But Sharma says the benefits of what she calls “getting Figgy with it” go beyond the numbers—it has also strengthened Fig’s internal culture, giving employees a clearer sense of who they are, and how to talk about their products with clients and major partners, such as Walmart Canada, where it offers personal loans to the retail chain’s app users.

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Looking ahead, Cote and Sharma aim to gradually roll out their commercials across streaming services and social media throughout the summer. Cote and Sharma are planning live events where customers can interact with Figgy directly, reinforcing the company’s accessible and friendly brand ethos. They’re also exploring online “ask-me-anything” sessions with Figgy to offer simplified, judgment-free financial advice.

For Cote and Sharma, Figgy’s early success shows that mascots aren’t just superficial marketing gimmicks. They’re a powerful way to foster emotional connections and build brand recognition—even in industries that can feel intimidating.