Coinbase CEO Says QR Code Super Bowl Ad Was The Company's Idea — But Ad Agencies Are Like, Ummm…

Coinbase Global Inc COIN CEO Brian Armstrong’s attempts to take credit for the hit Super Bowl floating QR code advertisement backfired Monday.

What Happened: Armstrong said on Twitter that the floating QR code meme advertisement dished out by the cryptocurrency trading platform was an idea of “brainstorming” after being presented a “bunch of standard super bowl ad ideas” by an outside agency.

Armstrong said that the advertisement was inspired by Reddit’s “superb” but fleeting Super Bowl advertisement from last year.

However, Armstrong was contradicted by Kristen Cavallo, CEO of The Martin Agency, who tweeted that the advertisement was actually inspired by presentations from her agency. She referred to the exact page numbers which contained concepts for the QR code advertisement.

Kate Rouch, the chief marketing officer, of Coinbase also jumped in on the contentious exchange of tweets and said that multiple agencies including The Martin Agency pitched us ideas that included QRs.

“However none of the ideas from any of our partners were conceptually what we were looking for and remained on the cutting room floor,” said Rouch, in a tweet.

She said it was only when Accenture Interactive, the digital agency unit of Accenture, came up with the idea of inserting a QR with a popular meme that it was given the go-ahead.

See Also: How To Buy Coinbase (COIN) Shares

Why It Matters: Coinbase’s digital platform allows users to trade in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin BTC/USD, Ethereum ETH/USD, and Dogecoin DOGE/USD. It is the second-biggest cryptocurrency exchange in spot volumes behind Binance, according to CoinMarketCap.

Rouch said she made the call that led to The Martin Agency not being chosen and said “breaking up is hard to do.”

Coinbase’s Super Bowl advertisement went viral this month and caused the company’s app to stop functioning after it was broadcasted. The company spent $14 million on the QR commercial, as the prior report. 

The advertisement was linked with the “Less talk, more Bitcoin” campaign. Coinbase announced a Bitcoin giveaway to its new users and also gave a chance to its existing users to win $3 million in Bitcoin.

Price Action: On Friday, Coinbase shares closed 1.4% lower at $189.16 in the regular session. At press time, BTC traded 6.4% lower at $36,639.66.

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