Creativity

23 June 2022

Cannes Lions: Direct Winners 2022 

Coinbase's Super Bowl QR code wins this year's Direct Grand Prix

Cryptocurrency exchange platform Coinbase has taken home the top prize in this year’s Direct category for its Less Talk, More Coin Super Bowl ad, created in conjunction with Accenture Song, New York.

The TV spot stood out among the usual high-budget, celebrity-endorsed ads by simply showing a low-res, colour-changing QR code floating around a black screen for 60 seconds. If users scanned the code, they were taken to the Coinbase website. The TV ad was complemented by a social media post saying ‘Now that we have your attention we'd like to announce that we're giving away $15 in BTC to anyone who joins Coinbase by 2/15’ [i.e. before the end of Super Bowl Sunday].

The case study video reports that the campaign triggered 20MM+ site visits during the ad broadcast, 445,000 new sign-ups to the website, 14bn+ media impressions, a 300%+ increase in brand consideration, and became the second most downloaded app on the Apple app store. 

Earlier this year, the CEO of Coinbase, Brian Armstrong, caused some controversy after implying on Twitter that the campaign had been an entirely in-house effort, saying ‘No ad agency would have done this ad’, before later admitting the involvement of ad agencies.

Outlining why the decision on the Grand Prix was unanimous, jury president Fred Levron – global CCO at Dentsu International – said that it was important to remember the media context that the ad ran in on Super Bowl Sunday. ‘What is the audience exposed to? Back-to-back TV commercials that all do pretty much the same thing: a superstar, a joke and go to the next one and the next one. Then this comes on screen and everyone stopped… and looked at it, took their phone and answered the call to action. It shows us that creativity is all about finding ways to stop us and make us care’.

When Contagious asked whether the more recent crash of the cryptocurrency market had given the jury any hesitation on rewarding Coinbase, Levron responded ‘Do we look at the stock when we’re judging? No. If we let those guys from Wall Street get their way in the judging room, it’s going to be a problem’.

Direct Gold Lions Winners /

Invaluable Food for Madrid Fusión by Leo Burnett, Madrid

Shah Rukh Khan-My-Ad for Cadbury Celebrations by Ogilvy, Mumbai

Apologize the Rainbow for Skittles by DDB, Chicago and DDB, New York

The Elections Edition for An-Nahar Newspaper by Impact BBDO, Dubai

The Nominate Me Selfie for Political Shakti + Times of India by FCB India, Delhi and FCB Chicago

Cirkular for IKEA by Hjaltelin Stahl, Copenhagen, and Ikea, Tasstrup, and Marketsquare, Copenhagen

Cannes Deconstructed /

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This article was downloaded from the Contagious intelligence platform. If you are not yet a member and would like access to 11,000+ campaigns, trends and interviews, email [email protected] or visit contagious.com to learn more.