Apart from the rapidly growing number of summer camps, the GAA is hoping to keep kids, and adults, busy during the first month of the summer holidays by coming up with an idea for an official GAA mascot.
There is a big sporting tradition around mascots and they form a key element of merchandising around major events like World Cups and Olympic Games. London 2012 had Wenlock and Mandeville and previous well known ‘cuddly’ mascots include World Cup Willy who was one of the first when England last hosted the World Cup in 1966.
The GAA is hoping to create a mascot that captures the core values of the Association and which should be ‘captivating and inspiring to young and old alike’.
Few clubs or counties have gone down this road before leaving the way for sponsors to try their hand at creating an occasional centre point. Centra have used characters from the TV creative adverts and Carroll’s Meats, sponsors of the Offaly team have a life size ‘pig’ wearing the county shirt that was seen at Croke Park and other venues in recent years.
Traditionalists may turn their nose up but the idea works well in soccer in particular with every club having an identifiable mascot that appears on school bags, posters, at matches for photographs before kick off and in a variety of different environments.
It is also a big winner in the US where NBA mascots have dance offs and all sorts of ‘friendly’ competition as part of pre match build ups.
The competition is already serving as a useful tool for building traffic in social media, and it may serve other purposes as well.
There is an annual mascot grand national in England, sponsored by a variety of bookmakers over its 14 year history, which brings mascots together in a race that takes place in or around the time of the same named horse race and which acts as a good promotional vehicle.
This years race is shown below and it may be that the GAA’s hopes for international expansion will see the new mascot emerge as a contender for the race in 2014.
The competition to design the new mascot is open to everyone. Entries should include details such as whether he/she is an animal or mythical creature, it’s name, heritage, personality and how it represents the GAA.
Entries have to be in by August 1st. The Mascot will be unveiled within three weeks and will appear at this year’s All Ireland finals. Now where are those crayons?
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GAA starts search for a mascot
