Dive Brief:
- Snapchat is releasing a new lens that allows users to enter LeBron James’ childhood bedroom, a nod to Crypto.com’s Super Bowl ad featuring the basketball player, per information shared with Marketing Dive.
- The lens lets users explore the bedroom to find hidden Easter eggs that unlock additional mixed reality experiences, further extending the life of the Super Bowl spot, which featured the Lakers player talking to a CGI-powered younger version of himself. The lens also links users to download Crypto.com’s mobile app.
- Snapchat users in North America engaged with AR more than 2.1 billion times on Super Bowl Sunday, demonstrating significant interest in mobile AR experiences among app users. Mentions of the Super Bowl on the social media platform surged 50% from 2021’s game, per Snap data.
Dive Insight:
Second-screening saw a noticeable boom around this year’s Super Bowl, with 59% of people saying it’s important to keep up with the game on multiple devices, a 16% lift from 2021’s championship. That growing portion of viewers looking to connect online around the game points to ripe opportunities for marketers like Crypto.com to connect with mobile-savvy viewers.
Now, Crypto.com’s latest effort on Snapchat is designed to use a second-screening approach to extend the reach of its big game ad. The cryptocurrency marketplace’s Super Bowl spot featuring James was viewed more than 19 million times on YouTube as of press time. It was also one of the most mentioned commercials on social media after the championship game, with James being one of Twitter’s most mentioned celebrities featured in a Super Bowl ad this year.
“We worked hard to recreate LeBron’s high school bedroom for our Super Bowl spot. When looking for ways to extend the story and deliver an immersive experience, Snap offered a great opportunity for our community and LeBron James fans world-wide to be transported back to 2003 through this innovative Portal Lens,” Steven Kalifowitz, Crypto.com’s chief marketing officer, said in an emailed statement.
The AR bedroom allows Crypto.com to extend the life of its Super Bowl commercial beyond the pricey ad buy during the game. Additionally, it encourages users to engage with the brand and its marketing on a more personal level. Snapchat has a monthly user base of about 500 million users, notching 319 million daily active users, per Snap data. More than 200 million of those users engage with Snapchat’s AR features daily, the company reports.
Making the bedroom available on a popular platform is a strategic move as 43% of U.S. males between the ages of 18 to 29 have purchased cryptocurrency, much higher than the 16% of the general population. Cryptocurrency overall is more popular among young adults — a key demographic for Snapchat — with 31% of people between 18 and 29 claiming to have used it, while just 8% of people between 50 and 64 have used it.