Sprint Shares' Gains Outpacing Verizon's Following 'Can You Hear Me Now' Commercial

Seventeen million NBA fans were treated to Verizon Communications Inc. VZ "can you hear me now?" iconic character during Game 2 of the NBA Finals.

The only thing is the actor, Paul Marcarelli, has since switched to Sprint Corp S and his tagline has now become "So I switched to Sprint and millions more have too. Can you hear that?"

Sprint Investors Can Hear That

Shares of Sprint have gained more than 18 percent since shares closed on the Friday before the commercial first aired. During the same time period, shares of Verizon have gained just 6 percent.

Related Link: Analyst Note Offers Explanation For Sprint's Recent Price Action

Sprint's new commercial focused on the company's network reliability which performers within 1 percent of its peers. After all, Marcarelli did say in the commercial that "every network is great" - Sprint's included.

Fierce Wireless cited a report by iSpot.tv, a TV advertising measurement firm, who concluded that Sprint's commercial accounted for an "overwhelming" 47.6 percent of the digital "share of voice" for the U.S. wireless industry from May 16 to June 15.

The commercial also ran more than 1,300 times on national TV and was also played during the NHL Stanley Cup finals. It generated 3.2 million online views and more than 26,000 social actions.