In December 2023, Bitwise launched an advertising campaign for a spot Bitcoin ETF. The crypto industry has been trying to get the tool launched in the US for years.. As of this writing, it is unknown whether it will be approved at all. It can be assumed that the Bitwise team decided to take such a step in order to put pressure on regulators through growing public interest in the tool. At the same time, the company cannot know for sure whether the money spent will give the expected effect.. Unfortunately, history shows that advertising does not always lead to the desired result.. Many fakaps prove this. We tell you how attempts to promote a crypto project lead to disastrous consequences.
How advertising helps promote crypto
Advertising is not only the engine of trade, but also a convenient tool that helps promote initiatives, which is very useful when it comes to such a young financial instrument as cryptocurrency. Advertising videos or banners flashing on the screen that talk about digital assets or crypto projects help create a positive image of the crypto industry. As a result, new members are joining the crypto community, and the level of adoption of cryptocurrencies continues to grow steadily.
Crypto project teams understand the power of advertising videos and strive to use it to popularize crypto products.
To increase brand trust, many crypto companies invite stars to appear in their commercials.. Celebrities already have a fan base. They are interested in their lives, they are loved and trusted. A company that films a commercial with a celebrity uses the celebrity's reputation to promote its product and increase brand loyalty at the expense of the star.
The generosity of the budgets of cyber companies can be judged by the size of the celebrities with whom they cooperate. For example, one of the highest paid football players in the world, Cristiano Ronaldo, advertises a collection of NFT tokens from the largest crypto exchange Binance:
But Oscar winner Matt Damon praises the crypto.com trading platform:
Many other stars, including Madonna and Eminem, are also willing to support crypto projects.
The downside of crypto advertising
There are several cases in the history of the crypto industry when an advertising campaign did not go according to plan.. For example, this happened with the Coinbase crypto exchange.. In February 2022, the trading platform team launched a commercial during the Super Bowl, the final game for the championship of the National Football League (NFL).. Millions of people watch the broadcast every year.
The Coinbase team created advertising in a minimalist style. Users saw a QR code on the screen. By scanning it, one could get to the crypto exchange and receive a bonus. Representatives of Coinbase did not take into account one detail – the trading platform was not ready for such a flow of visitors. As a result, the crypto exchange went offline.
Coinbase Super Bowl Ad:
It is known that advertising during the Super Bowl cost Coinbase $16 million for 60 seconds of screen time. The crypto exchange team wasted part of this money because they did not bother to make sure that the platform was stable to the growing flow of visitors. As a result, Coinbase lost many potential customers, and already registered users doubted the stability of the crypto exchange.
In some cases, problems with promotion are related to questions about the legality of the project. As we found out earlier, developers are trying to attract celebrities to advertising. They use the celebrity's reputation to improve the project's position. At the same time, the stars face a risk – if the project turns out to be fraudulent, their reputation will be damaged.
This happened, for example, with American football player Tom Brady and Brazilian supermodel
Gisele Bündchen. Celebrities advertised the FTX crypto exchange. A few months after the last commercial was released in September 2022, the trading platform collapsed.
Tom Brady and Gisele Bündchen in FTX commercial;
As a result, the couple had to apologize for advertising a crypto project that turned out to be fraudulent.
Interesting!
Tom Brady and Gisele Bündchen lost almost $50 million in investments due to the collapse of FTX.
There are other sad examples of advertising crypto projects. For example, reality TV star and entrepreneur Kim Kardashian paid a fine of $1.26 million for hidden advertising of the EthereumMax (EMAX) cryptocurrency.. The coin, in the best traditions of scam, depreciated shortly after the release of advertising posts. EthereumMax was also promoted by American boxer Floyd Mayweather. The athlete was accused of fraud.
In 2022, Forbes published its selection of stars for whom something went wrong with crypto advertising. It included boxer Mike Tyson, actress Reese Witherspoon, singer Nick Carter and other celebrities. Each of them promoted a crypto project in one way or another, which either turned out to be a scam or a big disappointment for investors.
Instead of results
A celebrity in a project's promotional video is not a sign of its reliability and safety. In this article we have given examples that serve as proof of the thesis. Before deciding to invest in a particular project, you should independently analyze its safety.