Coinbase going public was a huge moment for both the company and cryptocurrency as an industry. It was an opportunity to signal the arrival of crypto to investors, to affirm the faith of crypto enthusiasts, and to legitimize cryptocurrency in the eyes of the curious and the unconvinced alike. The statement Coinbase wanted its market debut to make was loud and clear: crypto is not a fad or a niche but is here to stay. It is time to replace skepticism with optimism because crypto is the future and this future is worthy of trust.
The campaign required an identity system as flexible and fluid as the currency itself. A visual language for graphics and animations that provided us with the ability to create ads that could seamlessly transition from a phone to a billboard. As for the storytelling, rather than steer clear of the volatility in the crypto market, we leaned into it. Yes, there have been peaks and valleys but this ignores the bigger picture: the crypto economy has only been trending up from the start.
The rise of digital marketing, hyper-targeting, etc. has encouraged some people to think that traditional marketing is dead or dying. But, sometimes the flash and flair of a big OOH campaign is precisely what you need to make an impression and set the tone for a brand. Nothing quite says "we're here to stay" in the eyes of a consumer like an all-out takeover of Times Square. The result was over 2.7M Coinbase downloads, and an 800% increase in daily active users from the previous year.
Agency: Bokeh
CEO: David Bates
ECD: Doug Smith Art direction: Sergio Jara
Motion design: Tomasz Wysocki + Gimmick Studio
Producers: Anna Bouma + Greg Speck