Hey friend 👋,

Last year, I wrote about the Crypto Super Bowl - The Nouns went to the Super Bowl, we had Crypto Super Bowl ads everywhere and Coinbase remixed the ever-classic DVD - my inner-five-year old was pleased.

While the ‘Crypto Bowl’ is officially dead (only one ‘web3’ company forked out for the $7m ad slot), I looked into the history & the economics of the Super Bowl, as well as some of the recent crypto-related ads to give my verdict on whether they were a success or otherwise.

Let’s get to it!

Superbowl-onomics

🎓 A little History For Ya:

The Super Bowl wasn’t always this huge, glamorous spectacle we know today.

In 1989, they had a magician named “Elvis Presto”; in 1970 (Super Bowl 4), a hot air balloon crashed into the stands.

The halftime show became a joke amongst fans - but over the decades, viewership has increased:

• 1967: 27 million

• 1990: 74 million

• 2000: 88 million

• 2010: 106 million

• 2023: 113 million

In the ’90s, everything changed with star-studded acts like Michael Jackson, Boyz II Men & Diana Ross making a halftime statement.

This new era completely changed the perception among fans & it convinced the world’s top artists that the Super Bowl was a valuable marketing platform.

Bombshell #1 - the NFL doesn’t actually pay any of these artists.

The Economics of the Halftime Show:

While they don’t pay artists, they provide them with free exposure - here’s the breakdown:

• The NFL signs a sponsorship deal like Verizon or Pepsi (Apple Music agreed to pay $50m per year to be the new halftime show sponsor)

• THe NFL keeps ~70% (in this case, approx $35m) and use the remaining costs to cover production for the show.

• The reality is the performers are happy to do this for the exposure - brands spend $7m for 30-second commercials, while Rihanna just got a 15min commercial for free - and it comes with way more media attention end-to-end.

• Another example: When The Weeknd performed for Super Bowl 55 (and paid $7m out of pocket to upgrade the halftime production), he sold 1 million concert tickets a week after. StubHub says that artists typically see a 50% increase in concert ticket searches after performing at the Super Bowl.

So what happened with Crypto at the Super Bowl in 2023?

Example 1 - DigiDaigaku

DigiDaigaku, an NFT collection made by project creators Limit Break - decided to use the same QR code campaign to drive people to a specific location.

For context, DigiDaigaku (an anime-style NFT collection) has done spectacularly well since last year’s launch - they’ve got a cult following and a highly engaged community of collectors. Check out their ad:

A few things:

• They paid A LOT to not show their brand apart from in the first and last 0.5 seconds

• I thought this was a casino / gambling advert, rather than a game

• It pushed millions of people to get a collectible with limited supply

• There was no explanation of what you’ll actually be getting (till the end)

• When a user scanned the QR code, it redirected to the founder’s Twitter account.

Awful lot of money just for some Twitter followers…

My verdict? Fail ❌ - poorly executed, inefficient use of funds and don’t think it’ll have a sustained impact on the company’s growth.

Example 2 - Reddit

The maestros of web3 marketing - Reddit has done it again.

The summary of what they’ve done:

• They’ve allowed users to personalise their profiles with avatars

• These avatars are NFTs, that can be traded and swapped on secondary markets. Around 10 million have been minted to date

• Reddit created a partnership with the NFL and 1.3m have minted NFL Reddit Avatars

• 6.6m unique wallets now hold 10m Reddit avatars, inc 500k new wallets created this week

Verdict: Success ✅

They’ve achieved product-market fit through a base use case with their Reddit collectibles - and are now extending that to broader audiences via brand partnerships.

I personally can’t wait to play around with these and report back on my experience.

What next?

I feel like the Super Bowl has been a pretty good indicator of the state of the market - cautious and non-committal with marketing spend, compared to last year’s crypto domination from companies flush with cash and pressure to grow.

Next year will be interesting - I can’t imagine we’ll be limited to one company advertising - I feel like we’ll see at least 3-4 Super Bowl ads from crypto companies, but I’ll be watching closely to see if I’m proven right.

🔗 Links Of The Week

🤖 How Google Fell Behind In the AI Boom

You would’ve thought Google would be top of the class for AI development - past scandals, botched launches, and a huge talent drain have led to them being behind the pack.

🏃🏽“Florida Man” Wins Seven Marathons, on Seven Continents in Seven Days

Chalk this up as another win for humanity - 7 marathons, 7 continents, 7 days - saying that at a pace of 2h56min per marathon, I feel pretty inadequate in my “I can barely cover 5km without wheezing” state.

🇮🇳 Can India industrialize?

One of the most important economic development questions is whether a country of 1bn+ people can finally take its rightful place among the industrialized nations of the world. If India transforms itself, it will upend the world economy - basically, it’d be a big deal.

In a Meme:

For the pictorially inclined, here’s the whole piece in a single meme:

Until next time 👋

I hope you enjoyed this week’s edition - I'd love it if you shared it with a friend or two.

Got feedback? Reply to this email or tweet at me and let’s chat.

Fahim