New kids on the blockchain
150 marketing students. 1 crypto brief. Endless creativity.
Creating opportunity is the name of the game at Fox Agency. It is, after all, our mission numero uno – finding new ways to take brands and people further – whether that be our clients, our own team, or, in this case, the next generation of marketing talent.
The Two+Two event is an annual competition where 150 young marketers compete in teams to tackle an identical brief and deliver a knock-out idea. The prize? Coveted placements and the chance to work on a creative idea with the sponsoring client.
As a student starting out, the heady world of marketing can be daunting to say the least. Having the chance to cut your teeth and show the industry what you’re made of on a real-live brief with real-life clients is, well, the definition of a golden opportunity.
So, when Fox Agency was invited to return as mentors after successfully coaching the winning team last year, we jumped at the chance. And what’s more, this year’s client sponsor was Coinbase, one of the largest global crypto asset exchanges. With blockchain technology being most definitely in our B2B tech wheelhouse, with successful campaigns for blockchain brands under our belt, we knew we could add some serious value and help bring out the best new creativity.
The future of marketing meets the future of ICT
Blockchain blows people’s minds, both impressing and confusing in equal measure for the average consumer. It’s a game-changing piece of technology – decentralising and democratising how we share information and communication, increasing trust, transparency and security, with crypto assets being the backbone of this new financial architecture. But for the average Joe, explaining how it works often leads to blank faces and suspicion.
Outside of business, marketing for blockchain technology (and crypto especially) doesn’t have the best track record for landing well with customers. Crypto.com’s Super Bowl ad with Matt Damon and FTX’s with Larry David tanked spectacularly after Bitcoin’s crash soon after, with David bizarrely being sued for even promoting the crypto brand.
Coinbase is trying a different tact. It’s latest campaign in the U.S. is Update the System – a rallying call for Gen Y and Z to choose crypto over the traditional financial system that has and is failing them. It’s powerful stuff and starts to make a serious case for the technology other than speculative FOMO – and this theme was key for Coinbase’s brief to this year’s Two+Two students.
They were asked to create a stand-out campaign idea that didn’t explain the technology, but instead brought to life its benefits through compelling use cases. Make crypto less cryptic as it were – changing perception, capturing imagination and driving societal change.
A challenging brief but, boy, an exciting one!
Ideas unchained
After a briefing session with the Coinbase team and a little inspiration from the creative judges, the students were segmented into groups of around 30, and then split up further into teams of 4 or 5. The students don’t know each other, are from all different courses and backgrounds, but must work together in their team to come up with a creative campaign, with the winners of each group going into the final where they will pitch their idea to the judges.
Helping them along the way would be their industry mentors – and this is where we came in, discussing their ideas with them and hopefully steering them in the right direction with our experience and knowledge, keeping them firmly on brief. It’s a great opportunity to give something back and help the next generation of creatives, strategists and client services show the industry what they can do.
It was an intense and full day, and by the end there were some incredible ideas being presented. The winning team pitched a fabulous concept, ‘The Transparent Kitchen,’ to showcase how blockchain technology can be used to make food supply chains more transparent and trustworthy. It was amazing to see the creativity on show, especially for something extremely techy and challenging to resonate with a wide audience.
If this year’s standard was anything to go by, it looks like the future of tech marketing is in good hands.