The Super Bowl is perhaps the most watched American sporting event. It is the championship game between the two best teams in the NFL (National Football League), a professional football sports organization. In 2022 it was the Los Angeles Rams against the Cincinatti Bengals, played at the SoFi Stadium in Inglewood (a Los Angeles suburb). This gave the Rams a home turf advantage in a stadium with a capacity of 70,000 but expandable to 100,240 for events like the Super Bowl. The viewership projection for the Super Bowl in 2022 comes from data analytics firm PredictHQ.  They estimate that the event will attract 117 million viewers on NBC’s network. If the international market is included that could bring figures between 125 -150 million viewers.

That is great exposure for ads, and that is the reason why many are shown during the game’s broadcast. Getting to a large target market and demographic helps keep brands relevant, and does well for marketing to new consumers. With that as a reason for advertising, the crypto (i.e. cryptocurrency) industry took the spotlight with ads  for more exposure to a mainstream audience in 2022.

In Super Bowl LVI, crypto-related fintech companies like FTX, Crypto.com, Coinbase and EToro used this opportunity to release their commercials.  The market is not entirely in a boom phase quite yet. The market still has plenty of room to grow and we are at the early stages of adoption. Commercials that reach out to so many people, who actually watch them during the Super Bowl, is one way to get the message across. That is especially true for attracting new customers and crypto users. What is significant is that these companies are an important on-ramp to crypto.

The thing is, commercials for the Super Bowl need to be creative and engaging. This is probably the only time an audience will actually watch commercials because of the entertainment value it also brings during the event. Brands have learned that making their ads the most entertaining and engaging for the Super Bowl is how to capture their target market among the audience. For example we see the usual beer commercials and junk food items. Only this time with popular celebrities and public figures doing the endorsement since this adds more value and reputation to the brand. It is all about brilliant marketing with the theatrics of Hollywood.

How did the crypto ads do? I think they got the message across, but let’s be honest. Probably most of the audience have never before heard about crypto or simply do not understand or care about it. The commercials this year have become more engaging to try to make the target audience more curious and interested, at the very least. In one of their ads, FTX features Super Bowl champion QB Tom Brady (“Tom Brady Wants A Trade“). They feature a familiar face using a not so familiar app for crypto trading. Likewise, Crypto.com had their “Big Game Preview with LeBron James” commercial, as part of their “Fortune Favors The Brave” campaign.

These would be very expensive spots for even a few seconds, but perhaps it will be worth it. NBC was selling 2022 Super Bowl ads for record deals, closing at $6.5 million per 30-second commercial. Companies like FTX and Crypto.com will have no problem paying that amount. These are successful crypto exchanges earning billions in revenues who are willing to advertise. Advertising is a tried and tested formula for capturing new markets. For crypto it can help to bring in more adoption.