As part of this second marketing wave, Coinbase next month will issue a visual campaign on Wall Street that documents the history of money, as well as a roving billboard in the form of an armored money truck, which will drive around New York to illustrate the inefficiency with which money is moved today. Coinbase also plans to run digital content showcasing real-life crypto use cases.
Crypto marketing has seen significant change since the halcyon days of last year and is now mainly an effort by two companies, Coinbase and OKX. The latter launched an ad earlier this month that took a jab at Coinbase: “It’s not time to update the system—it’s time to rewrite it,” the spot’s narration said in a jab at Coinbase’s March campaign.
Read more: See OKX’s new campaign
Coinbase, meanwhile, appears to be attempting to come across as a more serious company with a serious mission. Still, there is reason to believe that Coinbase remains out of touch with most U.S. consumers. Only 20% of Americans own crypto, according to Coinbase’s own survey.
Beyond concerns over its usefulness, crypto also has a major reputation problem. The space has long been associated with self-interested tech bros—a label that some crypto companies have recently tried to dispel—and the late 2022 blowup of FTX has not done crypto any favors.
Even Coinbase’s new ad is unable to escape from questionable choices that some consumers may find an issue with. Its backing song—“Change” by singer and longtime civil rights activist Mavis Staples—is a meditation on violence and the need for social reform in America. Not, as Coinbase has used it, to voice support for memecoins.