How a Pringles-eating zombie named Frank became a Twitch celebrity
February 01, 2022 | By Matt Miller, Sr. Copywriter
Twitch has been invaded by zombies. Thankfully not of the brain-eating sort. No, it’s actually just one zombie who prefers snacking on Pringles. His name is Frank, he came from the videogame West of Dead, and he teamed up with Twitch in early 2021 to make Pringles the number one snack choice for gamers in Europe.
Frank’s big Twitch adventure
Pringles wanted to make a big impact with gamers in an authentic way and came up with an idea that had never been done on Twitch: break a character out of a video game into the real world during a live stream. They planned to have Frank burst out of West of Dead, enticed by the pop of a Pringles can, and emerge into the live stream of popular Twitch creator Leahviathan. Ahead of the live stream, Pringles promoted the event on Twitch’s homepage without giving away Frank’s big surprise.
When the time came, Leahviathan’s stream began like it normally does, with her gaming, eating Pringles, and chatting. But suddenly, the video game zombie started to act strange and Frank burst through the screen and into Leahviathan’s real world room. Once Leahviathan realized Frank was there to eat Pringles and not her brains, the two decided to hang out. For over two hours, the new dynamic duo played games, engaged with the chat, and even spent some time painting.
“Cheers Frank, nicest zombie I ever met,” Leahviathan tweeted with a signed picture of the zombie after Frank joined her stream. From there, he traversed the Twitch world, interacting with other gamers, learning the ways of humans, and, of course, eating Pringles. He visited seven more European streamers—including Spain’s Reborn_Live, France’s Doigby, and Romania’s Icemanlucky—cheering and hanging out with influencers as they took on a set of bespoke gaming challenges.
Frank the Zombie invades a Twitch stream to talk about Pringles.
Audiences love Frank, and Frank loves Pringles
Frank got to have his fun, play some games, meet some streamers, and engage with communities in a campaign that blurred the lines between advertisement and entertainment. But audiences loved him as well. Leahviathan even posted a behind the scenes video of her time with Frank on YouTube that drew more than 2,000 views and generated a lively conversation. Frank’s Twitch escapades drew in 1.9 million views, streamers watched 9.9 million minutes (almost 19 years) of Frank, and viewers shared 111,940 chat messages about Frank.1
“We are continuously looking to step up as a brand in the gaming space and to elevate the gaming experience through some unexpected fun--which is exactly what the Twitch collaboration adds to our plan while driving authenticity and credibility with gamers,” said Stephanie Thys, Pringles EU Director, Kellogg Company. “We can’t wait to push the boundaries even further in the future.” The campaign has been nominated for and won some of the most distinguished awards in the industry, including gold for Best Use of Content at the Media Week Awards and multiple golds at The Drum Awards.
Frank the Zombie invades a Twitch stream to talk about Pringles.
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1 Twitch internal, 2021