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Nearly two weeks after the Super Bowl, social media’s still buzzing about one of the ads…but the vibe has shifted.
Coinbase’s 60-second spot—which featured a QR code that drove so much traffic that the app crashed—became the center of a squabble about which geniuses came up with the ad: Coinbase or the ad agencies it worked with:
- In a self-congratulatory Twitter thread on Sunday, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong boasted that the crypto platform turned down an agency’s ideas for the ad before brainstorming its own, because “No ad agency would have done this ad.”
- Martin Agency CEO Kristen Cavallo interrupted Armstrong’s thought leadership by noting that an agency did come up with the idea: hers.
- Coinbase CMO Kate Rouch then replied that multiple agencies pitched QR code spots, but ultimately Coinbase landed on a version it created with help from Accenture Interactive…an agency.
Armstrong amended his post to thank a “creative firm”—without naming it. He and Rouch tweeted that the partnership was so “seamless” that Armstrong didn’t realize.
Bottom line: Cavallo later explained on LinkedIn that her calling out of Armstrong “wasn’t about IP or credit”—instead, it was to defend the value of agencies often employed by companies hoping to advertise their products on the biggest stage.—JW
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