Crypto brand Coinbase has emerged as the winner of Liquid Death’s “Biggest Ad Ever” auction stunt—and will pony up $500,114 to put ads on 500,000 cases of the canned water brand.

The stunt began a few weeks ago when Liquid Death, always an inventive advertiser, announced the eBay auction, positioning it to marketers as a better alternative to buying a $7 million Super Bowl commercial.

The brand promised to turn over space on its packaging to the highest bidder. While the Super Bowl attracted a record 123 million viewers this year, Liquid Death said more than 200 million people enter its retail partners’ stores each week—giving the winning advertiser potentially even greater reach.

As the auction got underway, the bidding price quickly climbed into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. While the auction appeared to end with a winning bid of $355,500, Liquid Death said technical problems had prevented “a number of legitimate bidders” from bidding higher.

Liquid Death got in touch with those bidders directly, and today announced Coinbase as the winner. The crytocurrency brand—itself no stranger to unconventional advertising, from its famous bouncing QR code on the 2022 Super Bowl to recent artistic spots from director Mike Mills—will pay almost exactly $1 per case to advertise on the half a million Liquid Death cases.

“Breaking the media mold works,” said Coinbase Chief Marketing Officer Kate Rouch, who noted that its unusual 2022 Super Bowl ad, created with Accenture Interactive, directed more than 20 million hits to the platform in one minute.

Greg Fass, VP of marketing at Liquid Death, told Ad Age that the company received more than 200 bids in all. Coinbase’s winning bid of $500,114 is the ninth-highest sum ever paid for an item on eBay, he added.

“This was ultimately an auction to the highest bidder, so we were open to almost anyone winning,” Fass said. “We're happy Coinbase saw the value in this unique opportunity and bid aggressively.”

Giving over one’s packaging space to another brand is highly unusual. Liquid Death’s offer turned surreal midway through when Coca-Cola’s Smartwater brand was among the early bidders. Fass said Liquid Death was committed to the stunt, regardless of the eventual winner.

“We’re always looking for ways to make fun of traditional advertising, and this idea was a way for us to flip the biggest advertising stage of the year on its head by offering a media opportunity that was nearly two times bigger. Any brand could win as long as they met the eligibility requirements on the listing,” he said. “We weren’t selling a partnership or brand collaboration. It was a very unique media buy.” 

Coinbase will have free rein to design its ad however it chooses, Fass said. Liquid Death will have final approval only to ensure the creative passes retailer standards. The creative must also clearly be disclaimed as an ad, Fass said.

Coinbase plans to ask its social followers for ideas about the ad’s content before finalizing the creative.

“The chance to directly engage with our audience in new, immersive ways got us excited,” Rouch said “We’re eager to involve them in shaping the creative direction of our ad.”

The whole stunt, Fass said, embodied Liquid Death’s unconventional approach to tentpole events like the Super Bowl.

“We had a very successful ad in the big game two years ago and may advertise again when it makes sense for us,” he said. “We always look at every decision we make with a critical eye and an outsider’s perspective. This year, rather than paying to advertise in the game, we produced a $5,000 video and turned it into over $500,000.”