Cryptocurrency-related commercials didn’t monopolise the Super Bowl’s commercial breaks to the exclusion of all other advertisements. Ads promoting conventional Super Bowl fare like liquor, vehicles, and movie trailers outnumbered the ones for cryptocurrencies.
Cryptocurrency has made a big splash during the Super Bowl, one of the most-watched and most high-profile commercial events of the year, in an effort to win over mainstream customers (in addition to those who have embraced digital currency so far). There was no attempt to market anything other than spending more money on cryptocurrencies in any of the cryptocurrency adverts that aired during the Super Bowl.
Bouncing QR Code For Coinbase
To advertise Crypto.com, LeBron James (with his de-aged younger self) was present. As an example of missing out on crypto, Larry David compared it to passing up on the wheel, the moon landing, or even FTX’s own portable music. It was eToro’s “social investing” pitch that convinced many to join the crypto ecosystem. NFT drops were used to promote Bud Light Next by Budweiser. While there were no celebrity cameos in Coinbase’s bouncing QR code ad, it was nevertheless one of the most talked-about ads of the night. Everything considered, it was the largest national launch yet for bitcoin and cryptocurrency, even bigger than the seemingly interminable Matt Damon ads that plagued the NFL regular season.
That was an impressive run of commercials. There were 20 million visitors on Coinbase’s website in one minute—enough to briefly shut down the app and the most the firm has ever seen—and Coinbase’s commercial in particular was a standout. Something that the intriguing ad might have been trying to convey.) Coinbase was also the second most popular iPhone app on the App Store the following morning.
However, the absence of certain aspects of the blockchain boon at the Super Bowl is just as revealing. There was little else to be found in the advertising other than exchanges and the simplest ways to invest in cryptocurrencies. Not a single mention of the NFL’s commemorative NFTs for the Super Bowl was made during the halftime performance, and there were no advertising selling NFT drops during the game.
Cryptocurrency’s Super Bowl Ads
As part of the “Web3” pitch, which envisions blockchain technology supporting enormous swaths of the future internet, as user-generated content and social media propelled Web 2.0, there were no commercials highlighting the supposedly more practical uses of crypto.
Super Bowl ads were noticeably lacking in pitches that explained what cryptocurrency technology can actually do or how its use can enhance everyday life for its users, if this was meant to be the blockchain’s big public premiere. A celebrity-studded gateway to the blockchain hype wheel was instead crypto’s big mainstream push.