Crypto.com and FTX to run first Super Bowl crypto ads
Crypto platforms FTX and Crypto.com have announced plans to run adverts at the Super Bowl amid a marketing spree.
Both the companies recently bought the naming rights to sporting stadiums as they attempt to catapult digital assets into the public eye.
Singapore-based Crypto.com today revealed its plans to run ads at the highly viewed Super Bowl to the Wall Street Journal. It comes after the platform last month agreed a $700m 20-year-deal to give it naming rights of the Staples Center in Los Angeles and just yesterday announced a partnership with the Angel City Football Club, a Los Angeles-based women’s soccer team.
“There’s a lot of people saying crypto is a fad, just the way they said the internet was a fad,” Steven Kalifowitz, Crypto.com’s chief marketing officer told the Wall Street Journal. “Crypto is really the basis of the next version of the internet.”
“Crypto genuinely is for everybody…” Kalifowitz added. “Going into different sports just allows me to reach everybody where they are. Super Bowl is just one more step into that, where it’s as mass as you get.”
The NFL’s annual Super Bowl last year drew more than 96.4m viewers with NBCUniversal, the company airing the NFL’s championship game on February 13, reportedly seeking about $6.5m for a 30 second ad.
The advertising push comes amid an explosion in the crypto space during the pandemic. In the UK regulators have been pushing back against crypto adverts which take advantage of inexperienced investors and trivialise the risks of trading digital assets, labelling such ads a ‘red alert’ priority
Last week, the UK’s advertising standards agency banned ads by Coinbase, Papa John’s and eToro for breaking regulations while today the regulator censored adverts by Arsenal promoting the club’s fan token.
Read more: UK regulator bans Arsenal fan token ads amid crackdown on crypto