I just read a piece on virtual brand ambassadorsthat discussed Gonzaga University's unleashing of Spike, the mascot online avatar being used to communicate with the school's online community.

There's no doubt that the interactive marketing technology that was once reserved for gaming communities has some interesting applications in other sectors.  Gonzaga's website now allows them to bring the mascot to 'life' in some way and create an interactive dialogue on the site. 

I think what I'm challenged with is the first part of a comment from the article:

"As a university, we need to foster warm, life-long relations with our alumni, parents, and friends," says Joe Poss, Gonzaga's director of development for university relations.

I'm supposed to build a warm, life-long relationship with your university by talking to a database of pre-written answers to common questions?  Isn't this really just a character culling through a complex series of FAQs and reading me the answer?  Ugh.

People develop relationships with brands, no doubt, but we truly relate to people.  I just fear that too much of the personal side of brands is getting replaced with avatars, auto attendants, email marketing auto responders and other technologies.

It's the second part of Mr. Poss's comment that I am more inclined to identify with:

"We were looking for an effective, creative experience for the website, with an emphasis on creative, when we came across the idea for Spike."

Definitely a creative approach to brand development that brings some personality and more of an interactive marketing mechanism to the website.