Coinbase’s announcement, which was broadcast during last week’s Super Bowl, seems to have created some buzz on social media in light of new information about the stock. When scanned, the 60-second TV spot featured a color-changing QR code that took users back to a BTC campaign page – apparently based on DVD intros in the past.
In a long Twitter thread yesterday, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong praised the company’s internal team for their work on the ad, saying: “One of the original ideas [for the ad] that we included was to add a QR code at the end “In the end, they agreed, and everything worked out well – our team did a great job of dealing with it at the last minute.”
In response to Armstrong’s post, Christine Cavallo, CEO of advertising agency The Martin Agency, stated that their agency actually inspired the ad, saying:
“I was actually inspired by the presentations our agency showed your team on August 18 (pages 19-24) and October 7 (pages 11-18) with Super Bowl ad concepts with QR codes floating on a blank screen.”
Armstrong then explained in an updated tweet:
“Even if we did not work with a traditional advertising agency, I would be evasive if I did not mention the creative company we worked with, who actually made the ad, ordered the song, got the approvals, etc. To be honest, for me we were all there. same team, so I did not quite understand it, thank you! ”
Armstrong did not mention the name of the creative company.
Kate Roach, marketing manager at Coinbase, gave a different version of the story, saying that a creative partner at Accenture Interactive came up with the idea of inserting a QR code into a popular meme, which was later highlighted by Coinbase employees. Roche sa:
“Several agencies, including Martin, gave us ideas that included QR codes for many different campaigns. But the ideas of our partners did not match what we were theoretically looking for, and were left on the floor in the cutting room. ”
On social media, Cavallo claimed that Coinbase “takes credit for itself and ignores agencies,” adding the confusion over who inspired the idea: “I defend Accenture as much as I support the industry.”
