We used the Super Bowl to reframe our core proposition in a way that not only leveraged the platform but also upended the marketing tropes of our category and the Super Bowl itself.

By recasting reliability, our core differentiator, in emotionally-charged terms, we created an impactful Super Bowl campaign that helped consumers see the brand differently and value its truth anew.

The goal was to gain more than our fair share of the conversation and engagement, and improve affinity in measures such as trust.

We had to break out of the category slugfest on the biggest moment of the year.

Verizon advertises in one of the loudest and most competitive categories in the U.S.: telecom. We run up against $350MM worth of competitor attack ads annually.

But at the Super Bowl, the pressure to stand out is even greater, compounded by all of the the out-of-category messaging and the noise surrounding the game itself.

Amid all of this, we needed consumers to takeaway the true value of Verizon’s reliability (a key proof point that competitors also claimed) and see the brand in a different light.

No one values reliability more than First Responders.

We dug deep into who uses Verizon's network to find a truer demonstration of reliability. We found one when we learned millions of fire fighters, paramedics and police officers rely on Verizon to connect their 911 emergency calls every day. This unlock led us to a truly differentiated campaign idea.

Millions of fire fighters, paramedics and police officers rely on Verizon to connect their 911 emergency calls every day. Reliability isn’t a nice convenience; it is vitally essential.

In moments when it mattered most - life or death situations - the network is what enabled those life-saving calls to go through.

What if the network wasn’t reliable?

What better way to demonstrate the importance of reliability than to dramatize the potential consequences if those first responder calls hadn’t gone through?

We created The Team That Wouldn’t Be Here: a living, breathing example of the power of Verizon’s network reliability. This team consisted of eleven NFL players and a coach who owe their lives to first responders answering the call.

We combed through archives to find and reunite the coach and players with the first responders who saved them years before. Directed by Peter Berg, these emotional stories became a captivating testimonial for the strength of Verizon’s network.

By several measures, this is one of the most successful campaigns in Verizon history. Over a two-week campaign, 2.4 million+ hours of the series were streamed online and 426k people shared individual episodes. Total reach: 190MM — VZ Brand Tracker. The idea evolved beyond 12 NFL stars team with fans around America sharing their own deeply personal stories of survival on social. Our early launch strategy generated such anticipation before the Super Bowl that it became the #1 viewed, searched and talked about commercial — AdAge/iSpot/AdBlitz. No other brand dominated the conversation like Verizon with a dominant share of voice of 14.2% of all online brand conversation — AdAge/iSpot. Verizon saw a 68% uplift in trust (the key brand metric, among exposed active shopper prospects) and 55% of exposed prospects felt compelled to switch — all with a campaign that didn’t feature a single cell phone or retail offer.