After asking people to sing at the Super Bowl, cryptocurrency trading platform Coinbase will urge them to break all the rules during the Oscars.
A new and visually striking spot that will air during ABC’s Oscars telecast on Sunday, March 15, urges viewers to stop acting as if they are a non-player character in a video game, one that can’t take any agency and must move along according to predetermined codes and scripts. The company hopes viewers will want to break free of established systems — including financial ones — and take more control as new products roll out across the rest of the year.
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“We don’t want our work to be predictable in any format,” says Cat Ferdon, the company’s chief marketing officer, during an interview Thursday. The key, she says, is to design bespoke commercials for specific occasions. Coinbase’s commercial during the Super Bowl — made to look like a lo-fi karaoke screen at a bar — was aimed at an audience that was partying in the moment. The new campaign is made to appear throughout the year, and the executives hope its distinctive look will make consumers want to watch it multiple times.
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In the streaming era, advertisers have grown fretful about consumers seeing their ads over and over again as interactive broadband hubs use algorithms to deliver a more targeted assortment of commercials. Coinbase’s effort, filled with little nuances and created to emulate the experience of a videogame, might have people welcoming another look rather than recoiling at seeing the spot for the 15th time in a period of just a few days.
Suprisingly, much of the set design and look of the actors is organic, not the result of too many special effects, says Joe Staples, Coinbase’s vice president of creative.
“There are almost no effects in it,” says Staples. “It was just working with choreographers, working with set designers, figuring out what’s the purest way to do this.”
Disney in recent years has sought between $1.7 million and $2.2 million for a 30-second ad in the event, but as of Thursday afternoon, has not declared sell-out of its commercial inventory. Rita Ferro, president of global advertising for Disney, in January told Varietythat sales were “efinitely pacing ahead of where we were last year.” Disney’s 2025 Oscars telecast lured an average of 19.7 million viewers, marking a 1% boost over 2024’s crowd.
Hopefully, says Staples, viewers “are a little bit flummoxed” by how the ad was created and want to take another look.