Super Expensive Super Bowl Crypto Ads Fail Miserably; Was It Worth It?

The largest U.S. cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase is on top for spending tons of money by the crypto sector on Super Bowl advertising. Coinbase had spent a record sum on Super Bowl advertising.

Cryptocurrency trading platforms were in the news when they appeared for the first time on the star-studded Super Bowl ads. However, the move did not translate into any surge in new app users.

Fall in app store downloads

All the prominent Whigs of the sector, Coinbase Global, FTX Trading, and Crypto.com, featured their advertisements during Sunday’s championship game. However, the exchange and investing platform eToro all saw a fall in U.S. app store downloads over the week before Sunday, according to research firm Apptopia.

Coinbase emerged as the second-highest slot on Apple’s app store ranking of all apps. However, the rank is deduced on least understood factors and analysts believe are based upon usage and velocity of downloads.

Coinbase emerges as the most recognized bank

According to Adam Blacker, vice president of insights at Apptopia, Coinbase was a clear winner in the sector and came out to become the most recognized brand.

Coinbase unveiled a minute-long ad of a blank screen and a moving QR code, prompting viewers to scan the mobile bar code to learn more. The code also offered a giveaway of $15 worth of Bitcoin for new users within 48 hours of the ad airing. Although, as a result, 20 million hits landed on the company’s page, crashing much to the annoyance of new users was not immediately recorded, according to Apptopia, it could still see a boost from Apple’s app store ranking.

The Seattle Times quotes Blacker saying, “Once you hit the top of the app store, it creates this self-fulfilling prophecy. More people today and tomorrow are going to look at the top of the app store, and they’re going to see Coinbase is up there, and they’re going to download it because it’s just in their face.”

In his note, Owen Lau, an analyst at Oppenheimer & Co Inc., said.

 “While Coinbase is one of the largest crypto exchanges in the world, outside of the crypto world, many people still haven’t heard of it; immediately after the release of this ad, there was lots of discussion about this commercial on social media. Some people liked it, and some people hated it. But, we believe Coinbase achieved its mission: getting massive attention.”

The Super Bowl audience is a manifold combination, with about 4 of 10 viewers from the age group of 18 and 49 — a group that comes under the demographic of crypto buyers.