Sonic was everywhere: His games were undeniable hits, he starred in cartoons, his toys were in McDonald’s Happy Meals, his face adorned cereal boxes, and his large blue body flew high above crowds at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. As a result, his fame grew.”Īt the height of his popularity, Sonic reached that top spot. But we did get Sonic on cereal boxes and in kids’ meal boxes. I remember a meeting at Coca-Cola where the chief marketing executive wore sunglasses and gave us 10 minutes of his time.
“We worked very hard at enhancing that Q and initially, that meant we had to make believers out of traditionalists.
“The higher the Q score, the more highly regarded the item or person is,” Knapp said. Mario, she said, wasn’t so far behind the Disney mouse at the time - he was often the second most beloved and recognized character. But Mickey Mouse was the “golden character” everyone was chasing, according to former Sega of America director of marketing services Ellen Beth Van Buskirk Knapp. Sure, Sega had Nintendo and its mascot, Mario, in its sights: The comparison and rivalry between early consoles and characters had been present for decades. He’s based this on something called a “Q Score,” or “quotient score,” which ranks consumer appeal and familiarity of brands, assigned by a company called Marketing Evaluations.
Al Nilsen, a former Sega of America marketing director, tells it like this: There was a time in the early 1990s where Sonic the Hedgehog was more popular in the United States than Mickey Mouse.
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