The archive · Advertising · Marketing decision · 2024–2025
Verizon's 'Can't B Broken' dares Beyoncé to break its network — +35% sign-ups
Instead of claiming reliability, Verizon lets Beyoncé try to break its network live at the Super Bowl — 29B impressions, record sign-ups, two US Effie Golds.
Verizon
What it had to solve
Verizon needed younger, skeptical Americans to believe its network was unbreakable, but a claim alone was not enough. The Super Bowl is the year's most network-intensive moment — the ideal stage for a real test, if the brand could make the whole culture join in trying to break it.
How it works
Verizon's standing message was that its network could handle anything, but younger Americans had heard such claims before and wanted proof. The Super Bowl is the most network-intensive day of the year, so Ogilvy made it a real experiment: let culture itself — led by the BeyHive — try to break the network.
The spot showed Beyoncé attempting increasingly absurd ways to overwhelm Verizon, from a BarBey lemonade stand to Beyonc-AI to a run for 'Beyoncé of the United States'. The twist was a genuine music event: at the end of the ad she announced her next album and immediately dropped two singles, sending millions to stream and download over Verizon's network in real time.
Five days of cryptic pre-game teasers built the momentum — a renamed 'Vérizon' handle, leaked photos of her horse Reneigh, and Tony Hale as her put-upon assistant — turning the spot into a cultural drop rather than a commercial. The results followed: 29 billion impressions, roughly a third of all Super Bowl conversation, a 4,900% jump in searches and a 35% year-on-year increase in sign-ups within a month of the game.
Why it lands
- The network claim became a testable event, so proof replaced persuasion for a skeptical audience.
- Beyoncé's real album drop made the 'load test' genuine — millions streaming at once demonstrated capacity no spec sheet could.
- The BeyHive did the amplification: easter eggs and leaks turned fans into co-conspirators days before the ad aired.
- Media, music and retail results moved together, giving the campaign commercial proof beyond attention metrics.
What it did
The campaign drew 29 billion impressions and dominated about a third of all Super Bowl conversation, lifted searches for Verizon by 4,900% with 95% category share of voice, drove 60% more store traffic the Monday after (Verizon's best Monday ever) and a +35% year-on-year rise in sign-ups within a month. 30 million people streamed 'Texas Hold 'Em' within days, and 'best network' and pride-in-brand perceptions rose 5–12 points among younger, more diverse audiences. It won two 2025 US Effie Golds (Internet & Telecom; Brand Integration & Entertainment Partnerships) plus two Silvers, a Cannes Gold Lion and a One Show award.
What you can take
When a claim meets skepticism, don't argue — stage the proof so the audience takes part in it; the test itself becomes the entertainment, the news story and the evidence.
Since then
The campaign became one of the most decorated US effectiveness cases of its cycle: two Gold Effies and two Silvers at the 2025 US Effie Awards (where Verizon ranked the #3 Most Effective Brand), a Cannes Gold Lion, a Bronze Lion and a One Show award, plus coverage from the New York Times to the WSJ. Its cultural side-effect — Beyoncé's 'Texas Hold 'Em' reaching the country chart, making her the first Black woman to top it — kept the work in conversation for months after the Super Bowl.
Sources
- Verizon | Can't B Broken — One Show entry
- Global Ads Spotlight: How Verizon and Beyonce's Super Bowl ad broke the internet and the network
- Ogilvy Recognized as Most Effective Agency Network in the U.S. at 2025 Effie Awards
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