Cryptocurrency industry is looking to gain mainstream legitimacy — marking a new milestone for the ever-growing digital asset community with several companies flooding Super Bowl LVI with commercials to prove their high-profile merits to a mass audience that many still don’t understand the risky ventures.
The Super Bowl is considered the most superior advertising event of the year due to the huge audiences it draws for the nearly four-hour game. Game-Time ad spots, which sell out weeks before the matchup are known to cost millions for the 30-second airtime. NBCUniversal, which is broadcasting this year’s Super Bowl charged up a high of $7 million to air 30 seconds ad.
This year nearly half of the prime commercials airing will be from crypto exchange companies all of which are making their first Super Bowl appearance in history or making some form of mention of the digital currency. Ad executives have rechristened the Superbowl the “Crypto Bowl” as major crypto companies’ ad blitz resembling the “Dot-Com Bowl” era of 2000 which featured a slew of web-related startup ads hoping to lead the adoption of the internet.
Three big crypto exchange services — EToro, Crypto.com, and FTX — ran ads during the big game. BitBuy, a Canadian crypto exchange, will run an ad that will broadcast only to Canadian viewers during the game. According to the research firm MediaRadar, the number of crypto companies advertising have more than tripled last year,
Coinbase, the most popular crypto exchange app in the United States, kicked off the Crypto Bowl ad war among crypto exchange firms that was a viral hit and crashed the website. The 60-second ad featured a multicolored changing QR code that bounced around the screen — a nod to the infamous DVD player’s screensaver. Coinbase’s name went unmentioned during the minute ad until the final 59th second when the company’s name appeared or when the viewer used their cell phone camera to scan the QR code
The QR code linked to Coinbase’s website landing page offering new users who signed up for an account received $15 worth of free bitcoin. Current Coinbase users got a chance to enter the platform’s $3 million giveaway.
The simple ad was so popular that shortly after it aired, Coinbase broke the internet caused by the sudden influx of heavy traffic to its website. Coinbase services crash saw many users receive error screens when entering the website page.
Coinbase’s commercial snagged the top spot on AdAge and Adweek’s lists of the best Super Bowl 2022 commercials. The 60-second ad is reportedly estimated to cost $14 million, according to reports.
FTX, another leading crypto exchange founded by Sam Bankman-Fried, spared no expense for its first Super Bowl ad dubbed “Don’t Miss Out,” which featured “Curb Your Enthusiasm” comedian star, Larry David. The ad was considered the funniest commercial to air during the Super Bowl. The 60-second ad, which also ran in the first half of the Big Game showed David throughout the commercials appearing in different characters rejecting many life-changing inventions in human civilization from the creation of the wheel to the lightbulb, and even the U.S. Declaration of Independence.
In the end, someone tells the comedian about the FTX app, prompting Larry to shrug off the enthusiasm by saying “Ehh… I don’t think so.” A tagline then appears that reads “Don’t be like Larry” in closing out the commercial.
The ad also, like Coinbase included a crypto giveaway feature asking viewers to head to Twitter and “retweet the ad” for the chance to win.
Crypto.com, a Singapore-based crypto platform made its Super Bowl debut with its 30-second ad titled “The Moment of Truth,” featuring NBA star LeBron James. The ad aired just moments after the halftime show features James back in 2003 talking to a younger self.
James is shown telling his younger self: “I can’t tell you everything, but if you want to make history, you got to call your own shots.”
“We going to the League,” the younger version and current James are saying at the end of the ad, which features the tagline “Fortune favors the brave” flashing across the screen.
eToro — a social investment company also debuted a crypto-focused ad. Appearing in the third quarter, the 30-second spot, dubbed “Flying Your Way” began with a user asking for advice from the eToro community on whether to invest in crypto or stocks. The ad then shows a large flying crowd of investors literally sweeping up new consumers, with one approaching the gentleman who posed the investment question and asked him, “To the Moon?” a homage to the popular meme coin DogeCoin and featured the mascot of the coin, a Shiba Inu dog.
Missing from the Crypto Bowl was Binance, the largest crypto exchange platform in the world. Binance opted to debut ad placements of their own on Twitter warning customers not to follow celebrities’ advice on crypto. The irony from Binance was it also used celebrities for its “#CryptoCeleb Alert” campaign urging customers to “do your own research” before investing their own finance into the volatile digital market. Binance debuted its social media campaign days before the Superbowl and featured celebrities from NBA star Jimmy Butler, Latin star J Balvin and UFC fighter Valentina Shevchenko to spread the same message.
Months before the Super Bowl, several cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin — the largest crypto asset — reached an all-time high. However, it has tumbled nearly 30% from its record high of nearly $69,000 made in November and has dropped nearly 17% so far this year ahead of the Super Bowl.
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