From hijacking Grammys (Taylor) to city-take-overs (Adele’s ‘30’), every artist tries to outdo the album-announcement.

By partnering with one of the biggest brands – Verizon – on the biggest stage in America–Super Bowl, Beyoncé redefined Americana by surprise-dropping two singles from her upcoming Country album at the end of a Verizon commercial. Genuinely breaking the internet. But never the Verizon network.

29 billion impressions and 30 million streams for ‘Texas Hold Em’ days later, Verizon has +35% new sign ups while Beyoncé is the first-ever female black artist with a Country chart-topper.

Football? TayVis? “Beyoncé and Verizon win the Super

Beyoncé wanted to redefine Americana with her new country album and reach as wide of an audience as possible. And Verizon wanted to prove that America’s most reliable network could handle anything and never be broken.

So we partnered the biggest telecom brand with the biggest icon there is on the biggest stage in America - the Super Bowl - turning the most watched event ever into the biggest network test and music drop of all time.

With Taylor Swift having hijacked the Grammys to surprise-announce her new album, ‘The Tortured Poets Department’, Beyoncé needed a way to top that. Especially with a new Country album that steals the win from ‘Miss Americana’ herself with more streams and chart-topping.

Similarly, Verizon used to be considered ‘the best network’, but competitors like T-Mo and AT&T have caught up. Verizon needed a way to leap ahead too. A way that wasn’t just about ‘faster’ or ‘bigger’ that no one cared about anymore. We needed to show them simply that our network could handle anything (or anyone).

The objective was thus to partner together (marrying B’s music and cultural power + V’s size and network strength) on the most America and network-intense day of the year – Super Bowl – to create a cultural moment with more reach and impact than either would achieve alone.

When something in culture goes crazy viral and dominates online conversation, it’s said to “break the internet.” Whether it’s Kim K’s risque Paper cover, the Renegade TikTok dance or ALS Ice Bucket challenge.

With the help of her BeyHive, Beyoncé breaks the internet all the time.

But can she break the Verizon network?

On the biggest and most network-intensive day in America?

With 120M+ increasingly young and diverse viewers tuning in, the Super Bowl is the largest audience for a single-network telecast to date. With 1 in 2 people tuning in just for the commercials.

How do we turn this commercial into the most unexpected and innovative music drop AND epic real-time network test of all time?

We needed to get the whole country to download and stream Beyonce’s new album all at once instantaneously, while proving just how unbreakable the Verizon network really is.

So we dropped a Super Bowl spot featuring Beyoncé attempting increasingly epic and meme-able stunts in an effort to break the 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, 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 Verizon.

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.