Smartphone launches used to be big, exciting events because new smartphones used to come with innovative upgrades that people couldn’t wait to get their hands on and test out. But over the past few years, smartphone launches have lost their sheen. Instead of major upgrades and brand-new features, the newest phone is usually just a modified version of the previous one, which doesn’t give consumers or tech bloggers a whole lot to get excited about.

Enter Google Pixel 4. This wasn’t a regular smartphone launch. It was the launch of a new smartphone with all-new innovative hands-free features like Motion Sense and the New Google Assistant. People were unfamiliar with hands-free features. So to launch the new Pixel 4, instead of telling people how helpful hands-free features could be, we needed to find a way to show them.

To launch the Google Pixel 4, a smartphone with innovative hands-free features like Motion Sense and the New Google Assistant, we partnered with Domino’s to bring the hands-free features straight to consumers with a delicious reason to try them out. People were able to order a Domino’s pizza with a Pixel 4, which was delivered in a standard size Domino’s box that had a phone-safe heat-resistant compartment made out of corrugated cardboard incorporated into the original design. Pizza in hand, people tested out the new hands-free features by following instructions printed right on the pizza box.

We were talking to Apple and Samsung users, most of whom weren’t even considering switching smartphones. So we needed to disrupt a category suffering from years of underwhelming upgrades focusing on tweaks to technical specs: smartphones had become so ‘smart’ that they were feeling out-of-touch with the consumer.

Luckily, we had a secret weapon: the Google brand. Our research showed that people love Google because it creates innovations that people really value. Google makes tech feel like magic, and the new Pixel with its hands-free features definitely had magic built in.

To demonstrate how the orchestrated magic of the Pixel feels, we decided to team up with an unexpected partner that could bring the magic directly to consumers in a way that blended seamlessly with their lives, while helping us demonstrate our magical product features in a totally new way. That partner? Domino’s, a brand that delivers magic everyday.

Instead of picking up the phone in store, consumers were able to order a pizza with a Pixel 4, which was delivered straight to their door with the help of Domino’s delivery network in a standard-size Domino’s box. The Domino’s box was redesigned specifically for the Pixel 4 with a phone-safe heat-resistant compartment incorporated into the original design. Pizza in hand, people used instructions printed right on the box to test out the new hands-free features.

The work ran across North America from launch day Oct 15 - Cyber Monday (Dec 2nd).

The launch reached 50% of the US in the first 48 hours. Instead of talking about the usual tech-specs, influencers started demonstrating the Pixel’s unique features on social media—and fans responded by asking how they could get their own Pixel 4 with a pizza. The buzz was further fueled by Domino’s, who highlighted the collaboration on their social media channels, giving the Pixel 4 exposure to an audience reaching far beyond tech media readership for a total of over 3 million PR impressions. This conversation added up to over 65 million impressions. In a category where launches are standard and tech specs all sound the same, we not only changed the conversation and got people talking about the truly innovative Pixel 4—we created an entirely new conversation about what a phone launch could be.