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Toyota x Hatsune Miku Collaboration

In 2012, Toyota collaborated with Hatsune Miku for the Toyota Big Air event. In January 2012, they began selling limited-edition "Toyota Big Air x Hatsune Miku" tickets. Over 3,000 sets of these tickets were eventually sold at major subway stations in Sapporo. Additionally, the first 1,000 attendees at the event site received another original "Toyota Big Air x Hatsune Miku" collaboration sticker. Toyota then helped sponsor Hatsune Miku's first American concert at Anime Expo in July 2012.

Initial announcement

Before the campaign officially launched, Hatsune Miku appeared in two Toyota online advertisements in May to promote the 2011 Toyota Corolla. Initially, Toyota approached Crypton to use Hatsune Miku and obtain the right to display her on Toyota's official website. Hatsune Miku then promoted the Toyota Corolla in a series of advertisements, and the car was crowned the "Official Car of Hatsune Miku."
One of the music videos, "Dream Harmonic," posted on Toyota's website, Facebook page, and YouTube channel, has been viewed more than a million times in less than three weeks.

Although not an official slogan, one of the reasons given for the collaboration was that "Toyota Corolla and Hatsune Miku make big dreams come true in compact formats."

MikuScape Event

Following the resounding success of the event, an additional meet-and-greet event called MikuScape was held on September 16 in California. At this event, Toyota celebrated the launch of its Corolla model and the Hatsune Miku augmented reality (AR) experience, where users will be able to see Hatsune Miku singing and dancing in 3D alongside the 2011 Corolla.
For those who weren't in attendance, Toyota allowed fans to download the target image from its website and the Toyota Shopping Tool app (both are no longer available). Using the smartphone's camera, the same augmented reality experience could be achieved. The app also provided instant access to any new Toyota release, as well as a VIN barcode scanner.

Awards

Later, the Association of National Advertisers' annual conference on multicultural marketing and diversity awarded the Toyota commercial featuring Miku the
Multicultural Excellence Award in November 2011. The Toyota x Hatsune Miku campaign successfully won the award in the digital media category. Hector Vallejo, one of the event's judges, said the video was "very relevant, very trendy, very targeted, and culturally relevant to young Asian Americans."

Advertisements and fan reactions

Advertising for the May 2011 collaboration took the form of a series of commercials featuring Hatsune Miku. The series of commercials covered Hatsune Miku's journey up to her arrival in the United States.
The first ad showed Miku driving the new Corolla before walking the red carpet at an event, captured by paparazzi. Initial fan reaction was mixed, as it was a 16-year-old girl driving alone.
In the second ad, Miku disappears from her shoot, and her assistant searches everywhere for her before finding her asleep inside her car in an underground parking lot. Fans were slightly upset that the assistant whispered, "The perfect place for a diva," as there was no connection between parking lots and being a musician. They were also puzzled by the fact that Miku snored incredibly loudly.
In the third commercial, one of her personal assistants tells Miku to try a bacon-wrapped hot dog. Fans were disappointed by Miku's overwhelmingly positive reaction to junk food, and while it's not officially canon, a majority of fans still assumed she ate healthy and was even a vegetarian.
For the penultimate commercial, Miku buys the bacon-wrapped hot dog. While fans still shared the same opinion as in the previous commercial, the general discussion among fans centered more on the ridiculousness of this commercial, especially in a car commercial, as there was no mention of Toyota or the Corolla.
Finally, in the final commercial, a 3D animator gives Hatsune Miku a comical mustache, much to her disapproval. Overall, fans felt this commercial was the best in the entire series because it was whimsical, but not completely out of character for the character. Once again, there were few, if any, references to the Toyota or Corolla brands, which caused confusion among viewers.