- Crypto companies are about to start a marketing blitz with investment and interest rising.
- Exchanges like Coinbase, eToro, and Blockfolio have hired ad agencies in recent months.
- But they face challenges standing out in a crowded field and educating a still-skeptical public.
Cryptocurrency ads are coming soon to a platform near you.
Top crypto exchanges plan to spend millions on marketing in the coming months as they try to reach the mainstream, offering a welcome trickle of new revenue for ad agencies still recovering from the pandemic.
Crypto companies have mostly avoided traditional advertising, instead using PR to target investors and a community of enthusiasts on platforms like Reddit and Twitter.
But crypto companies have attracted $8.6 billion in funding so far this year, easily surpassing 2020’s $3.4 billion total. Chief strategy officer Elizabeth Paul of The Martin Agency, which recently was hired by Coinbase, predicted at least one crypto brand would air a Super Bowl ad in the next two years.
US ad budgets for two of the biggest exchanges, Coinbase and eToro, shot up 57% and 230% to $16.3 million and $6.4 million last year, respectively, according to Kantar. And several top exchanges, including Coinbase, eToro, Crypto.com, Blockfolio, and Gemini, have hired or started looking for ad agencies in recent months, knowledgeable sources said.
Sina Nader, former Robinhood exec and current COO at FTX.US, said brands like his face a make-or-break moment as they try to stand out in a crowded field that includes publicly-traded companies like Coinbase and financial giants such as MasterCard, JPMorgan Chase, and MassMutual. FTX processes more than $10 billion in trades each day, but 99% of people outside the crypto community still haven’t heard of it, Nader said.
“Everyone’s racing to become the Kleenex of crypto,” said Paul.
Some are trying to boost awareness through big, splashy deals. FTX paid $135 million for naming rights to the Miami Heat’s American Airlines Arena and became the first official crypto sponsor of Major League Baseball. Blockfolio, which FTX acquired in 2020, signed a sponsorship contract with top NFL draft pick Trevor Lawrence.
Avinash Dabir, head of partnerships at Blockfolio, said the company would soon announce more global sports marketing deals as teams and leagues have grown more comfortable working with crypto companies.
Celebrities are another common theme among crypto brands. EToro has run campaigns starring Alec Baldwin and Kristian Nairn of HBO’s “Game of Thrones.” Top influencers like MrBeast, Charlie D’Amelio, and Logan Paul have endorsed currencies and exchanges, and Neil Patrick Harris just became Coinflip’s new spokesman.
The crypto exchanges are still new to traditional advertising channels like broadcast TV.
But eToro head of digital marketing Brad Michelson said his company quickly moved beyond a focus on Twitter with viral bitcoin gifs to display and podcast ads, PR, and platforms that don’t usually run fintech ads, like dating app Tinder. The company recently hired Vice-owned agency Virtue to create its next big campaign.
Exchanges face the challenges of setting themselves apart and convincing the public to give their products a chance. (For agencies, the risk is that these companies will spend big, then quickly pull back as their strategies shift.) And platforms like Facebook and YouTube still restrict ads for certain crypto products.
14% of Americans have invested in crypto and another 13% plan to do so over the next 12 months, according to an April Gemini poll. But a 2020 survey by PR firm Edelman found that 34% of respondents knew nothing about cryptocurrency, and only 26% believe it will have a positive impact on the world.
Paul said crypto companies will be tempted to define themselves as upstarts taking on the banking giants, but this strategy will lead to commoditization.
“For brands, this is the Wild West,” she said. “It’s not often in history that you’re on the edge of a reorganization of the entire financial world.”