The Manufacturing Marketer Getting Creative: Building a Brand Mascot w/ Josh Rozman
Oct 23, 2025
Josh Rozman, marketing leader at Oberlin Filter and creator of mascot Phil, blends scrappy creativity with systems thinking. He explains why a spokescharacter can 'stop the scroll' and how Phil scales across chatbots, videos, and email. Josh also covers winning leadership buy-in, involving employees in naming, and animating the mascot while prioritizing marketing systems like call attribution.
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Lay Foundations Before Creative Plays
- Start with systems and basics before launching creative ideas so you can scale work effectively.
- Use creative assets only after foundational tracking and processes are in place to avoid wasted effort.
Mascots Humanize Complex Products
- A spokes-character can humanize a technical brand and make marketing more approachable.
- You can scale a mascot into chatbots, videos, and other touchpoints to unify the brand voice.
When No One Volunteers, Build A Character
- Josh couldn't find an internal person to be the company's consistent face, so he created a spokes-character instead.
- That character solved timing issues and became a reusable marketing asset across channels.