Domino's App Featuring Hatsune Miku

About

Domino's App featuring Hatsune Miku (original full title: Domino’s App feat. 初音ミク -- 宅配ピザのドミノ・ピザ) is a collaborative iOS application produced by Yamaha Corporation's VOCALOID crew and Domino's Pizza Japan that was released in March 2013.^[1] The app enables users to order items from their local Domino's pizzas establishment, take photos with the character Hatsune Miku and create video of Hatsune Miku dancing on a pizza box with a feature called "Pizza Stage Live." The app, which is only available in Japan^[2], also includes exclusive Hatsune Miku songs.

Origin

Collaboration Announcement

The collaboration was announced^[5] on October 22rd, 2012 with the launch of Domino's Japan Vocalo Creative Club^[6], asking fans of Hatsune Miku to help contribute song ideas or illustrations so Domino's could produce their own song with the character. An introduction video (shown below) was also posted on Domino's Japan's official YouTube channel seeking contributors for the project. Over the course of the next several months, Domino's uploaded progress videos in a series titled Road to VocaloidP to their YouTube^[7] and Nico Nico Douga^[8] channels. By December 2012, three songs had been written.^[9]

App Release

On March 6th, 2013 Domino's announced the launch of a Miku Hatsune mobile app in a YouTube video featuring the CEO and President of Domino's Japan, Scott Oelkers. It was reuploaded to their Nico Nico Douga channel^[10] the following day. As of August 2013, the announcement has nearly 760,000 combined views. In addition to naming a handful of Domino's employees who had been involved in making the Vocaloid songs previously available on the Domino's Japan Vocalo Creative Club, the announcement reveals that the collaboration would also including Hatsune Miku-themed pizza boxes (mirror below).

Spread

The week of its announcement, many news and culture blogs outside of Japan regarded the campaign as strange and cringeworthy including Kotaku^[11], the Huffington Post^[12], RocketNews24^[13] and AdWeek.^[14] However, the campaign was so successful within Japan, the limited edition Hatsune Miku pizza boxes (shown below) completely sold out across the country within six days.^[15]

On YouTube

Due to the perceived strangeness of announcement video, YouTube Poop parodies of it began appearing as early as March 7th, emphasizing the language used in the video. In these videos, Hatsune Miku's name is often parodied to "me", resulting in phrases such as "Have you heard of me?" or "Have some fun with me!" As of August 2013, there are more than 2,400 search results for "Hatsune Miku Domino's Poop"^[16] on YouTube.

Notable Images

Search Interest

External References