What Crypto Super Bowl Ads Can We Expect in 2023?

Just like 2022’s NFL season, the crypto bear market – which has lasted much longer – trudges on. And while many have cut costs, not all crypto firms are pulling back from spending. Some are even preparing to shell out millions of dollars on Super Bowl ads to build brand awareness.

The 2022 Super Bowl put a spotlight on the crypto industry less than three months after bitcoin (BTC) and ether (BTC) hit all-time highs, with announcements from FTX, Coinbase, Crypto.com and others. The price of BTC and ETH are each down more than 70% from those peaks.

Although a more subdued representation is expected this time around, blockchain gaming company Limit Break said last week it bought a Super Bowl ad for $6.5 million. Crypto exchange OKX also plans to buy a TV spot for the game, Chief Marketing Officer Haider Rafique told Blockworks.

Rafique estimated that the costs – between the ad itself, as well as creating the idea and producing the commercial – could amount to more than 10 million dollars. He called the company’s recent “What is OKX?” campaign a prelude to the marketing efforts for 2023, starting with the Super Bowl.

The announcement will likely focus on OKX’s Web3 wallet, Rafique said.

“When you see a Super Bowl ad from us, it won’t be about the future of crypto or finance, but it will likely be about the future of Web3, and the ability for people to read, write and own on the web – and how it out for entrepreneurs, for small businesses, for creators and all of us,” he added.

The exchange purposefully held back on marketing during the bull market, Rafique said, allowing it to push forward with marketing efforts in recent months while competitors have pulled back.

For example, the stock exchange revealed a partnership with Formula 1’s McLaren Racing in a multi-year deal worth “hundreds of millions” in May.

“When the market goes down, people have more skepticism about our industry,” Rafique said. “That’s the time when we should be doing storytelling.”

A spotlight on NFTs

While OKX has yet to complete its media buy for the Super Bowl, Limit Break has.

The company, founded by mobile game creators Gabriel Leydon and Halbert Nakagawa, is set to feature its DigiDaigaku NFT collection in the TV spot. Limit Break gave away the collection under a free coin in August at the same time the company raised $200 million from Buckley Ventures, Standard Crypto, Paradigm Ventures, FTX, Coinbase Ventures and others.

The company said in a statement last week that the ad would feature a “Web3 experience” but declined to share details.

“I can assure you that you have not seen what we are coming out with,” Leydon told Blockworks in an email. “Having this ad is exciting for us because before the Super Bowl, there are going to be millions of people who have never heard of an NFT.”

The promotion of an NFT collection during the Super Bowl is particularly interesting, according to Coinbound CEO Ty Smith, as people will be able to see the effect of the ad on the collection’s volume and price in real time.

“I’m not sure there are too many products that have that kind of insight possible, and as marketers it’s something we’re looking at,” the founder of the crypto marketing firm said.

Accessing roughly 50 million people watching the Super Bowl on TV and expecting another 10 million watching online, Leydon said the commercial purchase is a way to expand the current DigiDaigaku community that currently consists of roughly 20,000 followers on Twitter and Discord.

Who will buy again?

FTX, Coinbase, Crypto.com and eToro each made ad buys during the US Super Bowl broadcast in February, when FTX and Crypto.com ran commercials featuring Larry David and LeBron James, respectively.

FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried said during a discussion hosted by the Bipartisan Policy Center last week that celebrity-driven crypto ads are less about acquiring private clients than fostering institutional relationships — a concept he admitted seemed counterintuitive.

“It’s a foot in the door, is what it really is,” he said. “It’s a, ‘Please stop turning down our meeting requests and have the meeting so we can talk about a way we can potentially work together.'”

Coinbase’s 60-second ad in February featured a QR code directing people to a promotional page on its website offering new users free bitcoin. The 30-second eToro ad promoting “social investing” mentioned crypto several times.

Spokesmen for the four companies declined to comment on whether they would advertise during the Super Bowl again.

Crypto platform Bitbuy was the only firm in the area to advertise on the Super Bowl’s Canadian broadcast. The Bitbuy ad featured NBA star Kyle Lowry.

Although the company’s online marketing spending in the second half of the year has remained consistent with pre-market decline levels, according to Binu Koshy, Bitbuy’s director of communications, it significantly reduced spending on offline marketing, which includes Kyle Lowry ads.

“[It’s] not because we don’t believe in the medium, but because we felt the messages in the commercials didn’t reflect today’s market reality, so it wouldn’t work, Koshy said. “We’ve also noticed that currently none of our top competitors here in Canada are advertising on offline media channels like they were in the past. That could change, of course.”

Although Koshy said he could not comment on whether the company would run an ad in the 2023 Super Bowl, he noted that Bitbuy has “ambitious marketing plans” for next year.

“We will continue to promote the benefits of using a regulated and locally based crypto trading platform like Bitbuy over unregulated international exchanges,” Koshy said.

Another message?

There could be fewer digital asset-related ads during the 2023 Super Bowl, said Keli Callaghan, a partner at Arrington Capital who previously led marketing at Algorand. But many entities in this space have a long-term vision and recognize the need for continuing education, she added.

“I hope that those that come to light will be more effective in educating the United States more broadly about the real benefit of being able to exchange value in decentralized models and expand financial participation,” Callaghan said.

Coinbound CEO Ty Smith said he expects crypto messaging during the Super Bowl to have a little more “gravitas” and envisions the big players positioning crypto as an interesting addition to an investment portfolio.

“The markets are down and a lot of people got burned last year,” Smith said. “Everybody knows that, and I think conscious marketing teams are going to recognize that while still [educating] viewers about the long-term possibility of Web3.”

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