The Situation: Due to COVID-19, The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City had to close its doors to the public for the first time in over 100 years. At the same time, Verizon was rolling out our 5G network, a transformative technology. But unless you’ve tried 5G yourself, it’s tough to get a sense of how groundbreaking it really is.

The Brief: The Met’s mission is to connect people to creativity, knowledge, and ideas. Verizon’s goal is to make our 5G network relevant for everyone who was stuck indoors. Together, we had an opportunity to use the power of 5G to make The Met’s art accessible for anyone, anywhere.

The Objectives:

1) Get as many people as possible to connect to The Met’s artwork virtually.

2) Differentiate Verizon 5G by showing how it transforms the way people interact with art.

In 2020, for the first time in history, screens became our primary window into the world. Brands responded by trying to bring events online as quickly as possible. But what was missing was the feeling of "being there." A livestream doesn’t replace a live concert.

So when The Met had to close due to COVID-19, we knew we had to do more than create a window inside; we needed to open the digital doors. Our mobile-only experience brought The Met to life like nobody had ever seen it before.

We created a 360-degree immersive mobile experience: visitors could browse never-before-seen curations, play educational games, and take home some of the world’s most famous art pieces on loan with AR.

Together, Verizon and The Met built a first-of-its-kind art museum, supercharged it with 5G, and redefined what it means to visit a cultural institution in the 21st century.

We needed to accomplish two major perception changes with The Met Unframed. The first was to play a role in the multi-year corporate initiative to change perceptions of Verizon from a telecommunications company to a tech company. The second was to demonstrate Verizon’s 5G network superiority and demonstrate the potential of this innovative technology.

The PR campaign had three objectives: launch with a buzz, capture the interest of the art community, and use the influence of art experts to drive the general public to The Met Unframed.

Our strategy was to announce The Met Unframed at a high-profile tech event to give us credibility within the tech space, generating an early round of coverage. At the same time, we previewed the embargoed story to key art publications to generate conversation in two separate, but highly influential communities, which set the stage to get traction in the mainstream media.

The Met Unframed redefined how people experience art. We made a 6.1-inch screen more engaging than a 20-foot canvas.

We rendered over 30,000 sq. ft. of museum space into 13 never-before-seen galleries with 46 interactive works of art to give visitors the same incredible feeling of being in the museum. Using the latest WebAR and WebGL technology, we built over two hours of immersive 360° gameplay.

We approached the exhibition with the fastidiousness of every Met curation. 3D designers worked closely with Met curators and historians to select and present artwork in a carefully designed layout of text, visuals, and audio.

Each piece contained an educational game that unlocked art for visitors to take home on loan in AR. Of course, we made it easy to share on social. Because who wouldn’t want to show off a Met masterpiece like Van Gogh’s Wheatfields in their kitchen?

The Met Unframed needed to show that 5G isn’t just an incremental improvement, but that it can transform the way people interact with the world’s most famous art.

The experience garnered over 1 billion impressions (over 93% earned media). We averaged over 20,000 visits per day from over 153 countries during our five-week campaign—more than The Met would average pre-pandemic.

Additionally, 76% of respondents (customers and prospects) who visited The Met Unframed said “Verizon innovates in ways that make my life better,” 2.3x more than the general public. 60% reported that the experience improved their perception that Verizon enables them to do new things (a key internal metric). And visitors were 2.4x more likely to see Verizon as a 5G leader.

We didn’t just reopen one of the world’s most important art collections, we inspired a new kind of connection to culture and creativity, powered by 5G.