Verizon used to clearly lead in “Best network” and had created the playbook to win with coverage maps, engineers and #1 claims. And we still held a stronghold with older, caucasian audiences.

But over the past years, competitors had spent billions catching up using those same tactics. Now everyone’s the fastest or most reliable and no one cares. All our research showed this deeply impacted the number of people switching to, staying with, and willing to pay a premium for Verizon.

Our brief was thus to reimagine how we re-secure network superiority in a way that

1) Americans – especially younger and more diverse generations going to competitors - would actually notice and care about

2) simply highlights how our network is strong enough to handle anything (or anyone)

3) drive sign ups despite rising prices in the month following.

To prove that Verizon can handle anything, we tried to push it to its breaking point.

We dropped a Super Bowl spot featuring Beyoncé attempting increasingly epic and meme-able stunts in an effort to break the Verizon network - from BarBey to Beyonc-AI to running for Beyoncé of the United States.

Then came the ultimate drop in the final moment of the commercial, as Beyoncé made a real time announcement of her album release, immediately dropping two new singles and sending millions and millions to the network to download and stream. Breaking the internet. But never breaking Verizon.

The Super Bowl isn’t just Footballs’ biggest day. It’s America’s most network-intensive day where the most scrolling, live-streams, video calls, food deliveries, uploads and bets happen. It’s Verizon’s Super Bowl too.

But just saying ‘our network can handle anything’ or ‘our network can’t be broken’ isn’t enough for these savvy, skeptical younger Americans. They don’t care and they need proof.

So to truly reinforce this brand message, we needed everyone to join in and genuinely try to break the network across all social, news and streaming platforms. We need it to be tested – not by one engineer – but by the epitome of culture itself: Beyoncé.

And this starts with mobilizing one of the most fiercely loyal, passionate and socially-active communities – the 300M-strong BeyHive who live on IG, Reddit, Twitter, TikTok etc. – in the most authentic and original way.

To break the internet, we broke the rules:

Dropping it like a music album, not a Verizon ad.

Across two stages:

Buzz (5 days pre-SB) and Boom (the night of SB).

-Buzz meant teasing the Beyhive with easter eggs and cryptic hints.

-From social-teasers like her ‘assistant’ Tony saying “She wants me to squeeze all these lemons by myself?” (her album Lemonade) while song ‘My House’ (her movie ‘Renaissance’) played and trended within minutes

-Changing our Twitter handles to Vérizon with an ‘é’

-Leaking pictures of Tony and Reneigh, Beyoncé’s silver-studded ‘horse’, on r/Talent reddit.

-Leveraging super fans and her dancers to stoke the conspiracies and escalate hype

Boom was airing the spot live and on her IG.

-Collabing with partners Mattel (BarBey) and Twitch (Slayoncé) to amplify reach

-A full-blown community-engagement strategy, interacting directly with fans

-Driving everyone to stream now and try break the network for real

‘Beyoncé and Verizon win the Super Bowl’.

400+ headlines nationally from NYT to WSJ. 1000+ globally.

Millions of social mentions.

‘Can’t B Broken’ got 29 billion impressions. Meaning everyone on the planet noticed it 3.6 times.

Together, we dominated 1/3 of ALL SB conversations (beating #TayVis).

We drove +4,900% searches for Verizon and drowned out T-Mo's two celebrity-stuffed SB ads with 95% category SOV.

We boosted ‘best network’ perceptions and proud-to-be a Verizon customer +5-12 pts with younger and more diverse generations in a way Verizon never has before.

We drove 60% more traffic to stores the Monday post-SB. More than any other Monday in Verizon history.

We achieved a +35% YoY increase in sign ups within a month of Super Bowl.

30 million people streamed ‘Texas Hold Em’ within days.

And Beyoncé made history as the first Black female artist with a No. 1 country song.