The most successful marketing campaigns seem inevitably to always feature some kind of mascot - whether it's a logo, animal, celebrity, or simply an object.
Perhaps one of the more bizarre yet effective mascots of recent years is the Travelocity Roaming Gnome.
Simply weird to some, cute to others, ironic to a few, Gnome has headed the Sabre-owned online travel agency's marketing drive since 2004 when its Where is the Gnome campaign launched.
The success of the campaign saw the launch of a dedicated page on the Travelocity website, a MySpace profile, Facebook page, Twitter profile and even its own Wikipedia page.
What Travelocity has done rather cleverly is continue the interest around the Gnome campaign by creating a string of online-only video clips - ensuring Gnome maintains its presence in as many channels as possible.
Such was the buzz when the diminutive garden ornament disappeared off the screens for a short period that a bogus news report was filmed, featuring an exclusive interview with Gnome. The clip has 20,000-odd views on YouTube and sits nicely in a GnomeWatch channel.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__5SpknFLC8