Question: Why do you watch the Super Bowl?
Answer (for at least 50% of the populous): For the ads.
Monday-morning-quarterbacking the ads is even more popular than MMQBing the QBs.
On Monday morning post-bowl, the clear winner from the 2022 Super Bowl ad competition was shockingly minimalist among all the other blindingly bright, fast-paced, celebrity laden promos. It featured a bouncing, retro-computer game style QR code without attribution.
Over 20 million people scanned that code in under one historic minute.
Where did the code take them? To the Coinbase website.
Once a phone-owner scanned the code and went to the website, they were offered 15$ worth of Bitcoin to download the Coinbase app as a new user, OR the chance to enter a 3 million dollar sweepstakes (for current users).
20 million website visitors in under one minute was more than 6-times the previous traffic high on the Coinbase website.
Thus, the insane volume of traffic crashed the website for a time.
This advertising strategy was clearly so popular, so original, and so genius, that mere minutes later Meta Quest (ahem, Facebook Oculus) made its’ own version.
What did Coinbase have to say about the ad campaign and ensuing success?
Coinbase CMP Kate Rouch made a blog post explaining the process and the inspiration for the ads.
“Our ad helps the millions of Americans who are curious about crypto get started — completely on us! It is not about an outdated winner takes all model, but instead embraces the core ethos that “we’re all going to make it” and can all benefit from the cryptoeconomy.
Our core inspiration for the ad was the curiosity and intimidation we know many people have about crypto. We wanted to pique their interest by doing something different… — a playful, low production nod to a popular Internet meme that invites action and discussion.”
Coinbase made history
Coinbase spent 14 million dollars on a low-budget commercial, and arguably had the greatest return on their investment ever seen in the history of advertising.
This ad has become part of the American collective consciousness. For many Super Bowl LVI viewers, they will remember seeing this commercial for the first time in the same way they remember other major TV moments like the moon-landing, or the MTV awards smooch between Britney and Madonna, or the finale of Game of Thrones.
Truthfully, some viewers loved it, some viewers hated it.
A tale as old as time.
More controversy followed
Riding high from the immediate explosion of attention from the ad, Brian Armstrong leapt at the chance to take credit for himself and the company.
Note: In the below tweet parts 11 and 12 of this thread were posted on February 20th and then February 21st.
What happened in between number 11 and 12?
Kristin Cavallo from the Martin ad agency publicly reminded Brian about their pitch.
Brian Armstrong might have backpedaled, but Kate Rouch did not go down without a fight, painting Kristin and the Martin Agency as jilted lovers.
Super Bowl 2023?
It is highly unlikely that the crypto ad presence in 2023 will be as significant as it was in 2022.
Essentially all of the crypto companies that had ads in Super Bowl 2022 are now defunct or seriously hobbling, including FTX, eToro, Crypto.com.
Currently, even Coinbase is laying of employees amid severe revenue losses.
Either way, bring on the 2023 ads!
