• The “Can You Hear Me Now?” commercials are back in the spotlight
• Sprint is using the early aughts nostalgia to their advantage by welcoming Paul Marcarelli onto their team

You may remember a series of advertisements in the 2000s with the infamous tagline, “Can you hear me now?” The line was delivered by actor and spokesman Paul Marcarelli, and though you may not know his name, you’d probably recognize his bespectacled face from a series of Verizon commercials touting the telecom network’s coverage range.

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Nearly two decades after it was first introduced, “Can you hear me now?” made it back into the spotlight — but for different reasons. Marketers should heed its tale and what it reflects about the evolving mobile industry.

2002 – 2011: Verizon emphasizes coverage over price

Imagine it’s 2002. Texting was nascent, Wi-Fi wasn’t commercially available, and cellular users paid by the minute to use their devices. Major providers tried to entice users into two-year contracts by touting low prices and special deals like cheaper rates for usage after a certain time at night.

Instead of trying to battle every other carrier on price, Verizon took a different approach. The cellular company decided to flaunt its industry-leading coverage range. After all, what good are unlimited minutes after 9:00 if you don’t have reliable service in your area? Enter Paul Marcarelli, whose delivery of “Can you hear me now?” earned him a permanent place in pop culture history. The line summed up Verizon’s entire campaign, letting viewers know that they could expect fewer dropped calls, more reliable service, and clearer connections if they made the switch. The strategy worked, with Verizon’s market share increasing several percentage points in the nine years the campaign ran.

2011 – 2016: Smartphones transform the mobile industry

By the end of the aughts, the mobile phone ecosystem looked very different. After the launch of the iPhone in 2007, smartphones took over, with penetration in the United States rising from 20.2% in 2010 to 63.9% in 2016. By this time, making late-night calls to avoid unnecessary fees was a distant memory, and cellular consumers were more concerned with data allowances than time spent talking or texting.

In addition to the rise of the smartphone, this period saw another major trend: cellular users were ditching their carriers and switching to new plans. The competition was fierce, and coverage was becoming less of a concern as more carriers entered the market and provided wide-ranging service. According to a CNN article from 2012, “The average cell phone customer now switches carriers as soon as his or her second two-year contract is up. That startling decline in loyalty is causing wireless companies to rethink the way they do business.” Among those telecommunications companies doing some rethinking? Sprint, one of Verizon’s biggest competitors.

2016 – Present: Sprint capitalizes on the evolving industry & early-aughts nostalgia

In 2002, making sure your cellular provider serviced your area was absolutely a priority. By 2016, however, a wide coverage range was pretty much a given among the major carriers. At the same time, kids from the “Can you hear me now?” era were growing up and getting smartphones of their own. The stage was set for Paul Marcarelli’s comeback — only this time, he was pitching for a different company.

In the first in a series of new ads for Sprint, Marcarelli addressed the elephant in the room. “Hey, I’m Paul, and I used to ask if you could hear me now with Verizon. Not anymore,” he said. “Guess what, it’s 2016, and every network is great. In fact, Sprint’s reliability is now within 1% of Verizon.” It was a bold move — instead of claiming Sprint’s coverage was the best or least expensive, the ads pointed out that coverage differences were now marginal, and urged viewers not to “let a 1% difference cost you twice as much.” The original commercial was viewed 14 million times as of 2021, and according to Sprint’s CEO, the cellular provider beat AT&T and Verizon for new customers that quarter. Meanwhile, Mercarelli’s Sprint campaign continued after T-Mobile purchased the company, emphasizing reliable at-home coverage during the pandemic.

So what can marketers take away from 20 years of the “can you hear me now” guy? Well, the future of the telecoms industry is always in motion, so being able to adapt is critical. Don’t be afraid to revisit old strategies, re-evaluate your place in the market, and challenge consumer perceptions. Don’t underestimate your audience — Millennials and Gen Z have been using mobile phones since childhood, and they won’t be fooled by slick marketing jargon. Just be honest about what you’re offering, much like Sprint has done with the revived “Can you hear me now?” campaign. And if you can lean on a familiar face and tap into cellular users’ sense of nostalgia, even better.