The National Geographic Channel has announced its new lineup (10 new series) along with some insight into its advertisers. One piqued my interest: the Geico (insurance company) gecko. He's a big hit here in the U.S. Why is this interesting to geospatial folks?
Geico is a corporate sponsor of the non-profit Association of Zoos & Aquariums, is a presenting sponsor of NatGeo's Dangerous Encounters with Brady Barr and Wild. In addition to Web content that features Barr and humans attempting to simulate the movements of a gecko, there's a Geico branded insert in the March issue of National Geographic magazine that includes a map of national zoos.
The last animal/mascot branding exercise I recall was from Trimble. At one event they tried to tie a bee's sense of direction to their GPS devices. They gave out foam bees on wires (very cool) but I'm not sure how many got the connection, outside of the fact that bees and Trimble's devices are yellow and black.
