Dominos collaborated with Netflix's Stranger Things to create a partnership campaign surrounding the launch of Season 4. Dominos wanted to reach a younger, advertising-adverse demographic while flexing their commitment to innovative ordering methods. We needed to fuse two iconic brands around an innovation that only Domino's and Stranger Things could do together, and to give fans an experience like never before.

Leveraging the telekinetic themes of Netflix’s Stranger Things and Domino’s history of ordering innovation led to creating an app that allowed users to order Domino’s with their minds. The Domino’s Mind Ordering App is an immersive experience that cleverly hacked the integral features of mobile by using a combination of facial movements, eye detection, and three-axis gyroscopic data to control objects in the 3D world and allow test subjects to use their “powers” by making certain facial expressions and head movements (like staring, nodding, closing their eyes, flicking their head), just like the character Eleven. The app allowed users to test these powers in a virtual Hawkins National Lab. There they could order with their mind and uncover hidden Domino’s and Stranger Things easter eggs such as a walkie-talkie conversation between Dustin and Lucas, the Noid in formaldehyde, and a 20-sided dice that transports the user to the upside down.

Fans of both Domino’s and Netflix’s Strangers Things are of all ages and backgrounds. Consequently, it was important that the concept show up in a variety of places and that the experience of mind ordering be accessible to everyone. Creating an app that could be accessible to both iOS and Android customers was a natural choice because we know people have access to different smartphones and we wanted to make sure the experience was widely distributed. Additionally, fans of shows, especially fantasy and science fiction, love digging deeper into those universes both on second screens and with real-world items. Therefore, the campaign was designed to have three crucial touch points, a long-form film (a natural and shareable experience close to the show), the app (how people engaged with the idea and had the chance to further explore the world), and a pizza box design (a physical piece of interaction).

The Domino’s Mind Ordering App is available for download in Apple and Android stores for free and was supported by a 3-minute longform video directed by Oscar-nominated Ted Melfi . The film was a labor of detailed authenticity, using the same cast, crew, and locations of the show. Many fans took to social media to voice their surprise and thrill that the content felt like it was an actual scene from the show.

Further support came in the form of a redesigned Domino’s pizza box. Because of the nostalgia ever-present in Stranger Things, the design was inspired by the cultural presence of Domino’s in the ‘80s while also being infused with easter eggs from the show. It also featured a QR code that directed people to download the app. Over 200M boxes were printed.

Additionally, the campaign included a :30 TV spot, Snapchat Lens, TikTok Hashtag Challenge, and Branded Effect.

The mind-blowing partnership garnered 802M earned media impressions, had over 330K app downloads and helped Domino’s leverage what would become the most watched English-language series in Netflix history to reach an entirely new audience, flexing the brand’s commitment to effortlessly magical ordering and a best-in-class customer experience.