Most Super Bowl commercials aim to be faster, louder, and more brilliant than other commercials. Additionally, there are big game ads from advertisers like Coinbase.
After confusing viewers during the 2022 Super Bowl with a decidedly lo-fi ad displaying just a QR code, the crypto trading platform is back with another spot that looks very spartan and looks like it was created by someone who was developing the Apple II in the 1980s. The 60-second spot emulates a bar’s karaoke screen, with basic computer animation and not-so-stylish graphics. It focuses on the lyrics of the 1997 Backstreet Boys song “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back),” where the first words people see on screen are “Oh my god, I’m back again.”
The key is a lean approach. Cat Ferdon, Coinbase’s chief marketing officer, said in a recent interview that she believes Coinbase’s commercials are likely to garner more attention than many commercials featuring celebrities by not emulating “a more sophisticated feel than any other ad during the Super Bowl.”
The executive said the commercial was aimed at creating a shared moment and getting everyone in the Super Bowl audience to sing the song, which the company hopes will have language that hints at the broader appeal of cryptocurrencies. “We’re still competing with people’s phones, and this ad is definitely going to get them and everyone’s attention,” she says. “We are effectively using this as the world’s largest singalong to show that cryptocurrencies are not just for techies, but also for people who really know the lyrics.”
Coinbase isn’t the first Super Bowl advertiser to take a very basic approach to pitching. In 2020, email advertising company Lifeminders.com ran what was essentially a yellow screen with a few lines of black text and declared the spot “the worst commercial of the Super Bowl.” As an error-filled version of the piano exercise “Chopsticks” plays, the ad tells viewers, “We’re information experts (nerds). But we don’t know anything about how to make ads.” In 2021, Autry aired a spot showing senior executives on-site playing keyboards and singing about their flagship product, oat milk.
The commercial looks like cut-off jeans and a tank top for a formal occasion. Viewers typically tune in to the Super Bowl to see the best of Madison Avenue. Expectations are also high for the chance to see culture-defining efforts like Apple’s famous “1984” commercial, which shocked people with its surprise celebrity cameos, dazzling visuals, clever use of popular songs and, in some cases, depictions of athletes rebelling against self-governing society, or Chrysler’s grim 2012 “Halftime in America,” in which a seriously injured Clint Eastwood implored the nation to get back on the playing field. recession.
Despite its rustic nature, some areas are noticeably undecorated. Web hosting company GoDaddy initially grew over the years with bare-bones commercials that played to the possibility of featuring scantily clad female characters. Cash 4 Gold, a trader that usually relies on cheaply produced direct response commercials, created a Super Bowl ad in 2009 featuring celebrities pitcher Ed McMahon and rapper MC Hammer.
Such efforts have surfaced as the ranks of the annual Super Bowl ad roster have expanded to include more startups and first-time participants. Many of these companies have little experience with mainstream advertising and instead focus on using digital outreach to develop specific niche customers. The best Super Bowl ads find a way to capture the attention of tens of millions of viewers while evoking the need for your product and the overall credibility of your brand.
Coinbase executives believe their approach is working. The company’s 2022 commercial was “probably the most talked about ad” of the year, Feldon said. After the introduction of QR codes at the Super Bowl, Coinbase saw 20 million hits per minute on its landing page, the company revealed after the 2022 game. The app crashed immediately after that.
Maybe Coinbase knows something about Super Bowl crowds that others don’t?
Joe Staples, Coinbase’s vice president of creative, said that while 120 million people tuned in to classic Gridiron, “I think 110 million people had a few drinks.” “This is supposed to be fun and kind of our gift to that moment.
The Coinbase team considered every element of the ad’s design, he says. Should you add a background like the waterfall people see on the bar’s karaoke screen? Should the edges of the graphics be fuzzy? Should the ad use a heart-shaped graphic that sometimes appears as the lyrics scroll?
“Almost all of our conversations were about self-control,” Staples says. “So people can just focus on themselves.”
If it works, the ad could also help with something that crypto companies don’t often think of doing: emotion. Executives hope the spot will promote a “feeling of togetherness” and encourage viewers to start singing along to the song, Feldon said. “We know that 60 percent of Americans who watch the Super Bowl do so together. The Super Bowl isn’t strictly a special pastime; it’s a group thing. And we really think this captures the spirit of the Super Bowl,” she says. “We’re not just buying airtime with this ad. We’ve really designed it like a shared, high-energy experience where the community can participate and do it together.”
In the winning Super Bowl commercial, Feldon says that sometimes you have to break the old rules. “The idea stands out,” she says. “And doing things that others aren’t doing makes you stand out.”
