Vtuber – Anime Inspired Avatar – to Promote Its Gaming Mouse

VTubers – online entertainers represented by digital avatars – became highly popular in Japan in the mid-2010s, and their popularity has increasingly spread internationally in recent years. In Japan, where VTubers originated, advertisers have naturally gone one step further by building campaigns around well-known VTuber personalities.

For the promotion of its wireless gaming mouse VM800, ELECOM chose to feature the popular VTuber Shibuya Hal rather than relying on a conventional celebrity or a standard product-centered advertisement.

ELECOM built the campaign around a visually distinctive anime-inspired presence that already feels native to gaming culture. Special campaign visuals showed Shibuya Hal using and holding the wireless gaming mouse, creating a stronger link between the product and the fandom-driven visual world surrounding competitive gaming.

The campaign was clearly aimed at Generation Z, from teenagers to people in their late twenties, who make up a large part of the VTuber audience in Japan. ELECOM also understood that these followers often feel a stronger attachment to their favorite VTubers than to traditional celebrities. As a result, the campaign images were widely shared on social media.

As VTubers have grown in visibility and influence, especially in Japan, many have reached a form of celebrity status through their anime- and manga-inspired avatars. It is therefore natural that they are now becoming increasingly present in advertising campaigns as well.

This is likely to be the next step in other parts of the world too. As media audiences become more fragmented and interest-based, VTubers may, in some categories, become even more influential than conventional celebrities. For brands targeting digitally native communities, they can offer not only visibility, but also a stronger sense of cultural relevance and emotional connection.