Four years after crashing its website, enraging viewers and bottoming out in the aesthetic ratings game, Coinbase aims to fail upward once again.
The crypto company returned to the high-stakes Super Bowl advertising game Feb. 8 with a 60-second spot hoping to inspire a viewer singalong with Backstreet Boys’ “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back),” accompanied by low-def, retro karaoke graphics.
“We’re taking a swing,” Joe Staples, Coinbase’s vice president of creative, told USA TODAY Sports in the days before the ad rollout. “Do things with your whole heart.
“Go as far as you can and if you do that, you can sleep well.”
As the intrepid viewer realized who was behind this singalong, they might be forgiven if they paraphrased a line from Backstreet’s anthem: Oh my God, they’re back again.
It was four years ago when Coinbase provided 60 relatively unforgettable seconds of Super Bowl 56 in 2022: Nothing but a QR code bouncing from one corner of your screen to another, the background occasionally changing colors as a crude keyboard version of the Motown standard “Money (That’s What I Want)” accompanied this game of Pong that cost an estimated $13 million of airtime.
When the average viewer couldn’t resist focusing their cameras on the QR code, the company’s web site crashed. Viewers howled on social media.
The spot finished last out of 64 contestants on USA TODAY’s Ad Meter, its 3.81 rating on the then-scale of 10 outranking only the 2020 Trump Campaign, the Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Campaign and U2 among the least-liked commercials this decade.
That’s not to say the spot necessarily was a failure. Curiosity drove 20 million hits a minute to its website, and the company’s app shot from No. 186 to No. 2 on the app store.
The viewers’ agita was, in a sense, the nadir of what the ad industry informally dubbed the “crypto bowl.” The game was flooded with ads for sports gambling and cryptocurrency, as FTX and Crypto.com occupied multiple slots; one of FTX’s charismatic leaders was eventually sentenced to 25 years in prison and ordered to pay back $11 billion for “orchestration of multiple fraudulent schemes.”
While Coinbase has taken on its share of public fire, it is now the largest U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange, with a $51 billion valuation.
Since then, Coinbase has switched up its creative team, with chief marketing officer Cat Ferdon helming the karaoke effort that it hopes grabs similar attention while leaving viewers in a cheerier mood.
“I think this ad successfully breaks through the noise. It’s creative, maybe a little controversial, just like that original QR code ad in 2022,” says Ferdon. “While Joe and I weren’t here for that, we’re confident that we’re breaking through that more over-polished feeling that every other ad has at Super Bowl time.
“And moreover, we found that this concept was an ideal second act to that bouncing QR code we did in ’22. Because it is so culturally relevant and completely unexpected and yet another ad, for us, indicative of a truly gutsy brand.”
With Super Bowl slots ranging from $8 million to $10 million per 30 seconds this year, the stakes only get higher. To Coinbase, though, risk is relative, particularly when accompanied by a ditty that might hit the demographic it hopes pours some of its hard-earned assets into its product.
“Coinbase really didn’t buy an ad. We bought a vibe, right?” says Ferdon. “And the vibe is, crypto is for everybody. Coinbase is for everybody, literally.
“We’re the only brand brave enough to step back and let the audience have fun with us. And that really sets us apart.”