As was expected, crypto was the talk of the Super Bowl, spreading a buzz throughout the United States. Coinbase, FTX, Crypto.com, and WeBull spent millions on advertising during the big game in hopes it would bring big traffic.
Perhaps the most notable ad of the games was from Coinbase, which used its 60-second spot to air a QR code. At the end of the ad, they let up the act – Coinbase’s logo briefly flashed. Customers that went to the QR code, or were able to access the crashing site, led to a website that offered $15 in free Bitcoin to new customers who signed up in the next two days. Existing customers could sign up for a chance to win crypto during the game.
By some measures, the ad was a smashing success – but on the other hand, it crashed Coinbase’s site and app for 30 minutes.
Surojit Chatterjee, chief product officer at Coinbase, wrote on Twitter that the website saw over 20 million hits in just one minute, and their engagement grew six times over previous benchmarks.
While Coinbase clamored to restore its site and app to former glory (and perhaps basked in their success), rival FTX ran its own debut ad featuring comedian Larry David. The “Curb Your Enthusiasm” star represented the serially incorrect and old-fashioned thinking about crypto and digital currency by suggesting that other people didn’t resist innovations like the wheel, democracy, and the like.
And after the halftime show ended, crypto.com aired a video featuring a young LeBron James chatting with an older LeBron James. The punch line was: “Fortune favors the brave.” Other crypto firms, including eToro, TurboTax also came up with crypto-themed advertisements.
Although it will take time to determine how much these advertisements immediately contributed to attracting newbies, there can be no doubt that crypto’s big night at the Super Bowl will be a notable one.