Gabe Leydon’s Limit Break plans $6.5 million Super Bowl ad for NFT games
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Limit Break, a blockchain gaming company led by Gabe Leydon, has bought a $6.5 million ad for its DigiDaigaku game at the Super Bowl.
The 30-second ad spot will allow Limit Break to showcase DigiDaigaku in a commercial at Super Bowl LVII in February 2023 in support of the DigiDaigaku community. It is a first for a blockchain gaming community to have a Super Bowl ad that can be seen by more than 50 million live viewers and tens of millions more online.
But it will be the third time Leydon has a Super Bowl ad. While CEO of Machine Zone, Leydon ran a pair of Super Bowl ads for the games Game of War: Fire Age and Mobile Strike. These ads starred model Kate Upton and actor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
“People remembered these ads for years,” Leydon said in an interview with GamesBeat. “I don’t think anyone has done anything like what we’re planning in a Super Bowl commercial.”
Leydon announced in August that he and Machine Zone co-founder Halbert Nakagawa and raised $200 million in funding. The company supported a “free-to-own” business model in which it gave away its DigiDaigaku non-fungible token (NFT) collection of anime characters. It has posted four collections now.
The ad will feature the collection in a Web3 experience designed to expand the community. Beyond that, Leydon does not say what the ad will convey.
“It’s definitely going to be new. That is for sure. I think it’s going to be the first full-featured NFT brand ad in the Superbowl, which we’re really excited about,” said Leydon. – The project has gone very well. It has been a big hit so far. And we’re happy to push the boundaries, much like we used to do in the mobile world with advertising.”
Others have called Super Bowl ads a waste of money. But Leydon believes in them. He believes this makes more sense than spending money on mobile ads, in part because of Apple’s recent push for privacy over targeted ads.
“We bought TV commercials in 60 countries. When we were at the Machine Zone, the Super Bowl commercials were the only ones that had a lasting impact. People talk about the ads for years afterwards.”
He added: “We want to show our collectors how committed we are to the brand and the community. So we’re definitely taking it to another level. We won’t be the last to do this.”
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