The LA Rams claimed victory in last Sunday’s Super Bowl, defeating the Cincinnati Bengals 23-20. The match was broadcast to over 100 million people in the USA alone. The battle for advertising space during the Super Bowl is intense, with a 30-second advertising slot worth up to $7 million. With four Crypto commercials hitting the airwaves during this year’s broadcast, some are referring to the match as the ‘Crypto Bowl’.
Let’s have a look at the ads making history…
Coinbase
Coinbase’s ad aired first, and was no doubt high-impact. In keeping with their recent ‘less talk, more bitcoin’ campaign, they presented us with a beautifully minimalistic concept. The ad consisted solely of a technicolour QR code, bouncing across the screen in the style of the much-loved ‘DVD’ screensaver. The ad pulled perfectly on 90’s nostalgia and human curiosity to captivate the audience, and when scanned, the QR code led to Coinbase’s landing page. On the page, Coinbase offered $15 worth of free bitcoin to all new sign ups, plus the chance to win up to $3 million of bitcoin.
The ad generated over 20 million hits on their website within one minute. It seems Coinbase were unprepared for this, with the traffic quickly crashing their servers. The team reacted quickly, calling for a necessary ‘time out’, but the website remained only semi-functional for up to an hour after the commercial aired.
FTX
In contrast to the Coinbase commercial, FTX opted for a high-cost production, featuring American comedy great, Larry David. David is depicted in a series of historic moments in which he is presented with life-changing technology, such as the lightbulb and the wheel, for the first time. Each time, he dismisses the idea as absurd, building towards the final scene, where he is presented with the FTX app. The app is presented as a “safe and easy way to get into crypto,” which, unsurprisingly, is again dismissed. This is followed up with the hard-hitting message; “Don’t be like Larry. Don’t miss out on the next big thing.”
Crypto.com
Crypto.com are no strangers to spending big on promotion, having last year signed a $700 million deal to rename the Staples centre in LA the “Crypto.com Arena.” They knew their audience, appealing to the sporting crowd with their commercial starring NBA legend Lebron James. In some sweet timing for the brand, Lebron became the NBA’s highest-scoring player of all time on the day before the commercial aired. The ad is set in the star’s childhood bedroom and incorporates metaverse themes by featuring a CGI young Lebron, getting a pep talk from his current day self. They conclude with the inspirational tagline; “fortune favors the brave.”
eToro
eToro’s commercial was based around “the power of social investing.” Their clip features an aspiring investor walking down the street whilst asking for advice from the online eToro community. The investor is then guided by a cloud of helpful investors inviting him “to the moon.” Despite gaining bonus points for the Shiba Inu cameo, the commercial generated the least traction amongst viewers, who understandably found it a little uninspiring.
Binance, the largest crypto exchange in the US, decided to remain on the sidelines for this one. Instead, they took to twitter, campaigning under the hashtag #CryptoCelebAlert, where they posted a video of Miami Heat star Jimmy Butler. Butler warns, “On Feb. 13, some of the biggest names are going to be telling you to get into crypto. Binance and I, we’re here to tell you: trust yourself, and do your own research.” Follow up tweets then directed followers to the cryptocelebalert.com website, which contained a “Crypto 101” course explaining basic concepts of cryptocurrency. This was certainly a not-so-subtle dig at their competitors, but highlights a key concern with the “FOMO-style” advertising often used in Crypto, and the lack of education underpinning the decisions of many new investors.
Whether or not you share Binance’s concerns, the appearance of Crypto ads in the Super Bowl continues Crypto’s invasion of mainstream domains. Parallels have been drawn to 2000, which was dubbed the “dot com” Super Bowl after nearly 20% of commercials were taken by ‘dot com’ companies. The game happened to be played at the peak of the “dot com bubble,” and the infamous crash that followed went on to wipe out many of those that ran commercials. Here’s to hoping history doesn’t repeat itself this time…
