Amid all the glitz and glamor the Super Bowl brings, there was one 60-second spot among the commercials that, arguably, made millions of people scratch their heads. The Coinbase Super Bowl LVI commercial was a clever riff on the bouncing DVD logo meme; the sight of a colorful bouncing QR code was something completely refreshing. Apparently, an estimated $13 million was spent on this QR code bouncing from corner to corner, with no product name or celebrity endorsement in sight. But did you scan the QR code? Scanning the code solved the mystery:
Get $15 in free Bitcoin for signing up*. Plus, a chance to win $3 million prizes!”
The fact is that cryptocurrency has experienced several peaks and troughs over the last few years, and as Superbowl is one of the biggest audience draws, it was a gamble that needed to pay off, and pay off it did! After the airing, the Coinbase app shot up from 186th place to Number 2 in the App Store.
This QR code landing page got 20 million hits within one minute of the ad airing, making it a clear call-to-action that cryptocurrency is something that’s not just on the fringes of society anymore, but it is here to stay and is ready for the world.
Also Read, in INSIGHTS: Why are so many young adults gravitating towards crypto
Cryptocurrency was a big presence this year in the Super Bowl, and it certainly piqued a lot of interest. But the ad used a tactic favored by many scammers; the oft-used “confusing” link. And this is where the ad was a sheer stroke of genius. The already divisive nature of cryptocurrency has meant that anybody who scanned that QR code was taken immediately to a Coinbase sign-up would result in crypto skeptics rolling their eyes. But those who had been intrigued by cryptocurrency but were not ready to dip their toe into this world, the fact that it was advertised in the middle of the biggest television audience was validation that now is the time to get involved.
As an advertising tactic, it was a gamble, but this is surely the metaphor for cryptocurrency; as so many people who took their steps into the world of crypto were, in essence, taking a gamble all of their own. And QR codes are, in many ways, a method that relies on the notion of trust. For those who wanted to delve further into it, they had the opportunity right there.
But what has this done for the cryptocurrency world? The commercial served a massive purpose: to drive more people to sign up with the offer, but it also sent a clear message to people who think of this as some sort of cheap scam, that they need to stay away and that cryptocurrency is for the serious, and the rest can carry on with their lives.
Cryptocurrency has now been widely accepted and this Super Bowl ad meant that it was an investment that had to pay off. And based on the sign-up figures, it clearly has.
