Twitch turns Frosted Flakes' Tony the Tiger into its first brand VTuber

Tony the Tiger is becoming a Twitch streamer, turning the Frosted Flakes mascot into a VTuber, or virtual video star, as part of a new experiment in brand collaborations on the site. Frosted Flakes announced yesterday that it was “the first brand globally to work with Twitch to transform a brand mascot into an interactive VTuber.” Frosted Flakes collaborated with Twitch’s Brand Partnership Studio, the in-house creative team, to develop the channel. Tony the Tiger will play a battle royale game, which was unnamed in the announcement, with other Twitch streamers on Friday at 5 p.m. ET. Frosted Flakes turned Tony the Tiger into a gamer by adding quirky details to his gaming setup, such as a custom PC that is cooled by milk. Twitch, the Amazon-owned livestreaming site, is popular among gamers, boasting 31 million daily visitors on average, according to Amazon’s latest figures. Brands have been active on Twitch before, including Wendy’s, which has streamed game-play. Wendy’s has been praised for ad campaigns that have crossed into gaming worlds like “Fortnite.” Tony the Tiger is riding the VTuber craze, though, which is a digital representation of the mascot that viewers can interact with on the livestream. VTubers got the name by combining “virtual” and “YouTube.” Adam Harris, global head of Twitch's Brand Partnership Studio, said VTubers are growing in popularity on the site. “We saw VTubing content increase 467% [year over year] last year,” Harris said in the announcement. “Together with Kellogg's Frosted Flakes, we're producing a made-for-the-Twitch community live experience that introduces a beloved character to well-known Twitch streamers … and encourages viewers to interact with Tony the Tiger in real-time in chat." Tony the Tiger has somewhat of an awkward history on the internet. In 2016, Tony the Tiger became Twitter’s main character for a day after getting frustrated with the “furry” community, people who appreciate oversized costumes, sometimes in their sex lives. For months, Tony the Tiger’s account had been receiving suggestive messages, presumably from furries. The social media manager for the account began blocking people, and that set off a public feud with furries. Frosted Flakes even had to issue a statement, saying it respects free expression, but “reserved the right to block” offensive content, the brand told BuzzFeed. Tony the Tiger appears to have become much less active on Twitter since then, and most posts featuring the mascot are posted by Frosted Flakes’ official accounts on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok. Frosted Flakes was not immediately available for comment for this story. On Monday, people on Twitter still remembered when Tony was harassed online. One Twitter post read: “Years ago: Tony The Tiger [was] scared off social media by thirsty furries. In a few days, Twitch chat will try to make Vtuber Tony say, 'ara ara,’ 'uwu' and 'hi honey.’” Those are terms of affection sometimes used by fans of VTubers on Twitch.

Twitch turns Frosted Flakes' Tony the Tiger into its first brand VTuber

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