Coinbase’s announcement that aired during the Superbowl last week appears to be causing quite a stir on social media in light of new information about its origins. When scanned, the 60-second television ad presented a QR code that changed color and took users to a promotional BTC giveaway page, apparently based on the meme DVD screen savers of yesteryear.
Yesterday, in a long Twitter thread, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong praised his company’s internal team for their work on the announcement, saying: “One of the original ideas [para el anuncio] had included putting a QR code on the end. They finally agreed, and it turned out great – our team did an amazing job pulling this off at the last minute.”
In a response to Armstrong’s post, Kristen Cavallo, CEO of advertising firm The Martin Agency, claimed that it was actually her agency that inspired the ad, however, said:
“Actually, he was inspired by the presentations our agency showed his team on August 18 (pages 19-24) and October 7 (pages 11-18) with advertising concepts for the Super Bowl with floating QR codes on a blank screen”.
armstrong later cleared up in an updated tweet:
“Even though we don’t work with a traditional ad agency, I’d be remiss not to mention the creative firm we work with that actually created the ad, commissioned the song, got clearances, etc. Honestly, I felt like we were all a team, so I don’t I totally figured it out, thanks!”
Armstrong did not mention the name of the creative firm in the thread.
Coinbase Chief Marketing Officer Kate Rouch presented another side of the story, saying that creative partner Accenture Interactive came up with the idea of inserting a QR code into a popular meme, which was subsequently approved by Coinbase staff. Rouch declared:
“Several agencies, including The Martin Agency, approached us with ideas that included QR codes for a number of different campaigns. However, none of our partners’ ideas were conceptually what we were looking for and remained on the cutting room floor.”
On social media, Cavallo alleged that Coinbase was “claiming credit and ignoring the agencies,” adding to the confusion of who inspired the idea: “I’m defending Accenture as much as I am defending the industry.”
My tweet was not about IP. I wrote because his thread could easily have been a celebration of creativity and breakthrough thinking, versus claiming credit and disregarding agencies. I’m advocating for @Accenture as much as I am for the industry.
— Kristen Cavallo (@Cavallokristen) February 21, 2022
My tweet was not about IP. I wrote because your thread could easily have been a celebration of creativity and innovative thinking, instead of claiming credit and ignoring the agencies. I advocate for @Accenture as much as I do for the industry.
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