The One Show
The One Show is the world's most prestigious award show in advertising and design. For over 50 years, the Gold Pencil has been regarded as one of the top prizes in the creative industry. The One Show has a rich legacy of honoring some of the most groundbreaking ideas, created by some of the most remarkable minds in creativity.
Category
Artist / Brand Collaboration
Annual ID
OS25_MS046M
Background
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.
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.
Creative Idea
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.
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.
Insights & Strategy
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?
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?
Execution
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
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
Results
‘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.
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.
2025 Awards
Total Points: 3
Merit
Credits
Agency
Ogilvy / New York
Production Company
MJZ / Los Angeles
Parkwood Entertainment / New York
Post Production Company
Cabin / Santa Monica
CO3 / Los Angeles
Method / New York
Sonic Union / New York
Associate Creative Director
Larissa Magera
Morgan Hoff
Chief Creative Officer
Samira Ansari
Chief Marketing Officer
Leslie Berland
Director
Craig Gillespie
Global Chief Creative Officer
Liz Taylor
Global Chief Strategy Officer
Mick McCabe
Global Executive Creative Director
Matthew Curry
Group Executive Creative Director
Doug Fallon
Steven Fogel
NA CCO & President
Chris Beresford-Hill
Account Director
Abigail Solano
Associate Director, Creative Strategy
Remy Wainfeld
CEO
Mark Dowley
Chief Production Officer
Tim Legallo
Director of Brand Strategy
Magnus Blair
Director of Business Affairs
Heather Weissman
Director of Marketing
Christopher Blades
Executive Group Director
Arya Boghraty
Global Client Lead
Kris Gibbons
Global Head of Production, WPP/Hogarth
David Rolfe
Head of Strategy, New York
Lynette Wong
NA Creative & Entertainment Lead
Juan Woodbury
President
Susan Cole
Senior Council
Carolina Pineda Martinez
Senior Director, Connections Planning & Performance
Mack Leahy
Senior Director, Creative Strategy
Andrea Huemmer
Senior Director, Head of Brand Engagement
Tim Chirico
Senior Director, Marketing Communications
Andrew Testa
Senior Vice President, Creative Marketing Group
Ricardo Aspiazu
VP of Communications
Donna Lyden
VP, Head of Creative Marketing and Brand Design
Mike Wente
VP, Marketing Activation
Jen McCarthy
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