Brian Armstrong Explains Why Coinbase Made The Poorly Received Karaoke Super Bowl Ad: 'The First Step Is Even Being Noticed...'

Core Insights - Coinbase's CEO Brian Armstrong emphasized that the company's Super Bowl advertisement aimed to capture attention in a competitive market, despite criticism regarding its educational value on cryptocurrency [1][2]. Advertising Strategy - Armstrong described the Super Bowl as an "overwhelming" event, highlighting the challenge of gaining viewer attention amidst fierce competition [2]. - The company is exploring new commercial formats and has invited community input for future advertisements [3]. Advertisement Performance - The recent karaoke-style ad, which featured lyrics from the Backstreet Boys' 1997 hit "Everybody," was poorly received, ranking as the lowest-rated advertisement on USA Today's Ad Meter following the event [4]. - This performance contrasts sharply with the successful floating QR code advertisement from the previous year, which led to a significant surge in user engagement and caused Coinbase's application to crash [4][5]. Financial Performance - Coinbase reported fourth-quarter total revenue of $1.78 billion, which fell short of analyst expectations, while earnings of 66 cents per share exceeded consensus estimates [5]. - The company experienced a brief outage that affected user trading, but the issue was resolved [6]. Stock Performance - Coinbase shares rose 0.87% in after-hours trading after a 7.90% decline during regular trading hours, with the stock down 37% year-to-date [6]. - The stock maintains a weaker price trend across short, medium, and long-term evaluations, with an average Value ranking according to Benzinga's Edge Stock Rankings [7].