The Met Unframed is an ambitious mobile experience that virtually reopened The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York after almost a year in lockdown. This immersive digital activation established Verizon as a leader in 5G and, more broadly, as an innovator that can transform industries.

Through this experience, Verizon started an exciting conversation within the art community and beyond about technology's role in the way we understand, engage with, and appreciate art. And we showed that when innovators like Verizon partner with industry leaders like The Met, we don’t just play a role in that conversation, we create it.

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.

We made 6.1-inch screens more engaging than a 20-foot canvas.

When COVID-19 forced The Met to close, Verizon partnered with the museum to reopen their doors. We knew we had to do more than create a window inside the galleries or a livestream. We brought The Met to life like nobody had ever seen it before.

We built a new way for people to “walk” through The Met in a 360-degree immersive mobile experience, curated never-before-seen galleries, and gave new meaning and context to some of the world’s most famous art using 5G technology.

We rendered over 30,000 sq. ft. of museum space into 13 galleries with 46 interactive works of art to give visitors the same incredible feeling of being in the museum.

Together, Verizon and The Met built a first-of-its-kind art museum, supercharged it with 5G, and redefined what it means to be a cultural institution.

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.

We couldn’t have asked for a better launch moment. The Met Unframed was announced by Verizon Chairman and CEO Hans Vestberg during his kickoff keynote address at the 2021 Consumer Electronics Show, one of the largest tech events of the year.

After the initial announcement during CES, the Verizon PR team collaborated with art publications as well as mass print and broadcast media to spread awareness and excitement, and ultimately to drive people to the experience.

Additionally, we partnered with influencers, leveraging existing relationships from both Verizon and The Met, to help drive engagement on social media. And of course we made the experience itself easy for visitors to share on social. Because who wouldn’t want to show off a Met masterpiece like Washington Crossing the Delaware in their living room?

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, more than 93% of which came from earned media. The campaign generated over 40 original articles in publications ranging from CNN and The Washington Post to tech publications like CNET to art publications like Artnet.

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.

76% of respondents who visited The Met Unframed said that “Verizon innovates in ways that make my life better,” a 2.3x increase over the general public. 59% said that the experience improved their perception of Verizon as a company that builds what's next. And 56% reported that The Met Unframed improved their perception of Verizon’s impact on society.

Verizon’s brand affinity was 85% for Met Unframed visitors, 2.6x higher than for the general public. And 92% of visitors said they would recommend The Met Unframed to a friend, the highest response of any Verizon initiative in the last three years.

All in all, we reopened one of the world’s most important art collections, got more visits during our five-week campaign than the actual Met would pre-pandemic, and drove significant perception changes for Verizon.