#CryptoAds2022 ... SuperBowl 2023 will miss ya!

Hello,

In today’s dispatch we have:

• Crypto Ads of 2022

• EPL Scores Big with Sorare

• Coinbase Wallet Adds more Security

NFTs exploded in popularity in 2021 and now its everywhere; in Gaming, Fashion, Entertainment, Social media and also in Advertisements. So, let's talk about that - NFTs in Ad campaigns.

Here's an NFT ads flashback from 2022:

November: Adidas bought a Bored Ape and named it Indigo Herz. Thanks to BAYC IP rights, in Adidas's World Cup 2022 commercial Indigo Herz pops up on the front of a cereal box alongside Lionel Messi and Karim Benzema. 

February: Bud Light created Bud Light NEXT, launched just a week before Super Bowl LVI. And the collection appeared in Bud Light's Super Bowl commercial.

July: Kia launched an NFT collection in collaboration with Dead Army Skeleton Klub (DASK) NFT characters on the Sweet platform. Three popular DASK NFT characters drove a 2023 Kia Soul for its "Built For Whoever You Are" ad.

Other crypto ads that came out in 2022 (mainly for the "crypto bowl"):

• February: FTX's ad featured Larry David and emphasized its platform as a "safe and easy way to get into crypto." David ultimately declines. Looks like he knew it!

• NFL icon Tom Brady did one for FTX, too, with his now ex-wife Gisele Bündchen (and got into trouble later, of course.) 

• Coinbase released a minimalistic commercial sporting basic two-dimensional graphic images, which was kind of a hit! And the Coinbase website crashed temporarily due to heavy traffic!

• eToro's Super Bowl ad was called "Flying Your Way." It also featured the Shiba Inu dog.

• April: The Algorand Foundation promoted its carbon-negative blockchain by using digital billboards in Times Square and then turning them off to save 23.4 billion joules of energy.

• And more including Binance and Crypto.com

We had a metaverse ad, too: In November, Nike dropped its Footballverse ad, which is about a group of scientists trying to find out who the GOAT is. Their solution? Create a virtual world where legends (old & new) like Cristiano Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Kylian Mbappé, and more go head-to-head to settle the score.

Months before last year's Super Bowl, several cryptocurrencies like bitcoin were reaching all-time highs! Fans called the game the "Crypto Bowl" because there were too many crypto ads. 

And now...

As Super Bowl LVII approaches, let's see what happened to these companies who advertised during the last year:

FTX: collapsed, bankrupted, CEO arrested.

Coinbase: Layoffs, shut services in Japan, Stocks 70% below its one-year high.

Crypto.com: Two rounds of layoffs in six months.

eToro: Layoffs, but doing comparatively okay.

EPL Scores Big with Sorare: 4 year Partnership Brings NFT Trading Cards

The English Premier League takes a fun leap into the world of NFTs as they partner with Sorare for a four-year deal to bring EPL player trading cards to the fans!

About the deal:

• It's a four-year deal worth around £30m ($37.12M) yearly.

• Sorare game players can buy and use official EPL-licensed NFTs within the game. 

• The partnership will also allow Sorare to mint and sell digital trading cards of EPL players.

With a lineup of 1,111 cards representing each player in the EPL, Sorare's Premier League-licensed cards are expected to be auctioned today. The starting price for the least expensive card is just £1, a steal compared to its maximum reserve price of £1,000. 

About Sorare:

Sorare is a fantasy sports gaming platform using NFTs, non-fungible tokens, to represent football players through trading cards. The cards are registered as unique tokens on the Ethereum blockchain, allowing players to buy, sell, and earn points based on real-life player performances. Sorare generates revenue by issuing new cards for players to add to their collections.

Coinbase Wallet Goes on a Security Makeover

It looks like crypto spammers have been putting in overtime!! So, Coinbase just gave their Wallet app a makeover by adding new features to improve safety and user experience.

The features:

• Transaction previews: Will help Wallet users see how a smart contract will affect their Wallet balances before they agree to it.

• Token approval alerts: Will let the user know if a dApp is trying to take their NFTs or cryptocurrency.

• Dapp blocklist: Coinbase Wallet will warn before the user proceeds with a flagged dapp

• Spam token management: Will maintain a database of known, malicious addresses and hides airdropped assets. 

• Better control over security: Will enable new layers of permission management, support for multiple addresses and expanded compatibility for hardware wallets.

Coinbase Product Manager, Ayoola John, stated that the new features were brought about to combat the scary and confusing nature of crypto transactions, so users wouldn't fall for phishing, evil airdrops, and other sneaky scams.

Even crypto Twitter has seen a rise in crypto scams. The Robinhood official Twitter account and the Azuki Ethereum NFT collection Twitter account were hacked last week and used to spread scam promotions.