Coinbase Crashes the Super Bowl

The talk of the (Super Bowl) town this year was the 60-second spot from Coinbase which simply featured a QR code floating in Atari style. The brand spent $14million just to feature this QR code. So many clicked on it that their site crashed. Seen that before!

Many of us are talking this week about if or how or why the spot did or didn’t work. Let’s face it, the Super Bowl is a huge stage from which to shout. And Coinbase shouted out loud. And here’s a video that explains the results it got.

Essentially, Coinbase used the Super Bowl to propel itself into the stratosphere of its space. It was already the largest, and now it’s also the most well know in a “new category” that is growing and growing with more and more competitors. When that’s the case, being the most well known is essential. Likely more valuable than just being the biggest.

Well done, Coinbase.

What’s your experience? JIM

PS - QR codes were all but dead before the pandemic. Thanks to a world that was forced to drop its hard copies and go paperless (ala restaurant menus), the QR code came back to life. And I think Coinbase just gave it another boost!