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Coinbase CEO's excuse is that he sees Martin Agency as a "creative firm" not a "traditional ad agency" and he felt they "were all one team". Although it should

by ldjb 5y ago

Coinbase CEO's excuse is that he sees Martin Agency as a "creative firm" not a "traditional ad agency" and he felt they "were all one team". Although it should be noted that last Tweet was posted hours after the original set of Tweets. https://twitter.com/brian_armstrong/status/1495820351879659525 https://twitter.com/brian_armstrong/status/14958203518796595...

espadrine 5y ago
The situation seems a bit more complex. The Martin Agency’s proposal was rejected, but the idea of the QR code that they suggested remained in some minds. The creative firm they did the ad with was Accenture Interactive, see this: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6898989146246123520/ https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6898989...
- hitekker 5y ago
  More complex but still deceitful. Coinbase's own CMO gave credit to that ads agency, which the CEO of Coinbase did not acknowledge until he was criticized: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6899028049740869632/ https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6899028...
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - mrandish 5y ago
    It's also possible the CEO didn't know that the idea was pitched months earlier to people on his marketing team by another agency because his marketing team told him they came up with the idea internally. Hogging credit is, sadly, pretty common in corporate gamesmanship.
    - pm90 5y ago
      That’s plausible but makes him look rather gullible at not only having bought into that lie but using the example as evidence of the supposed inferiority of ad agencies. I’m not a politically adept person but even I can see that it puts into question his decision making skills as a CEO of a crypto firm. People in leadership positions generally need to be really good at calling bullshit otherwise they get surrounded by pliant yes-men.
      - Aeolun 5y ago
        I mean, he is CEO of a crypto firm.
      - InitialLastName 5y ago
        > decision making skills as a CEO of a crypto firm > really good at calling bullshit Maybe one of those things can tell us about the other?
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
    - Uehreka 5y ago
      Yeah, I don’t feel a ton of sympathy here. He wanted to seem a “tech cool kid” who disrupts traditional media and is above normal corporate stuff, and he either wasn’t willing to let the facts get in the way of that narrative, or just assumed that narrative must be true and that the facts would back him up. He’s either deceitful or sloppy, and both are bad looks.
    - lupire 5y ago
      His actual excuse (tweet 12) was that the ad agency did such a good job that he just assumed Coinbase owned them. Because he's just that entitled.
mmaunder 5y ago
His 'excuse' was posted 35 minutes after Kristen posted her comment, as tweet 12 in a thread, when tweet 11 in that thread was posted 12 hours earlier. Pro tip: Ninja edits don't work on Twitter. https://twitter.com/brian_armstrong/status/1495636944289775616 https://twitter.com/brian_armstrong/status/14956369442897756... https://twitter.com/Cavallokristen/status/1495811487897735170 https://twitter.com/Cavallokristen/status/149581148789773517... https://twitter.com/brian_armstrong/status/1495820351879659525 https://twitter.com/brian_armstrong/status/14958203518796595...
- jancsika 5y ago
  If only there were some kind of decentralized linked list of prohibitively-expensive-to-counterfeit ordered records that he could have leveraged to prove to the world that his twelfth statement preceded hers. Just imagine the vast set of use cases for such a data structure! Why it's enough to make one indiscriminately spam various web forums to tirelessly enumerated through all of them.
  - TedDoesntTalk 5y ago
    Yet somehow the human race survived for 200,000 years without a block chain.
    - jancsika 5y ago
      Exactly my point: just imagine how fascinating the next 200,000 years will be with blockchain! When you think in those terms you realize how shameful it is that, say, HN isn't getting in on the ground floor and spawning a worker in every reader's browser to mine crypto. The energy expended to mine Bitcoin pales in comparison to the early mover opportunities lost each day from lack of action.
    - colejohnson66 5y ago
      Not really a valid argument. We survived millennia without a lot of things. The Industrial Revolution was only two centuries ago. It doesn't mean life was necessarily better before then.
mannykannot 5y ago
Ah, so The Martin Agency was not the entity he called "an outside agency" which "pitched us a bunch of standard super bowl ad ideas" in the second tweet of the thread? https://twitter.com/brian_armstrong/status/1495636114824380417 https://twitter.com/brian_armstrong/status/14956361148243804... My guess, which may be a tad speculative, is that there is an ongoing, but previously-confidential, dispute between Coinbase and the agency over whether and how much the former owes the latter for the work they did.
- usehackernews 5y ago
  Coinbase hired a new CMO. When that CMO joined, she decided to go with a different agency. A QR Code in a commercial is not novel, making the entire commercial a QR code is. Sounds like Martin Agency presented a commercial with QR codes, not a QR code commercial. Unless Martin Agency shares the slide, It’s impossible to claim it was MA’s idea. It sounds like her reply is the result of the Coinbase CMO cutting ties with her company.
  - tehwebguy 5y ago
    Haha okay, her tweet says: “It was actually inspired by presentations our agency showed your team on 8/18 (pages 19-24) and 10/7 (pages 11-18) with ad concepts for the Super Bowl with floating QR codes on a blank screen.” https://twitter.com/cavallokristen/status/1495811487897735170?s=21 https://twitter.com/cavallokristen/status/149581148789773517...
    - m348e912 5y ago
      Right but did it say mimic a DVD screensaver? I really think she should show the goods if she wants to make light of the situation. BTW I'm kind of on her side, but don't make us take her word for it.
      - dillondoyle 5y ago
        I want to see the receipts too. But floating QR codes on a blank screen is pretty close to the end product. They should have made it bounce to the exact corner at end of the ad for any Office crazies
dougb5 5y ago
Is Martin Agency really dissimilar from the agencies that make other superbowl ads? What is a "traditional ad agency" anymore, even? And what's with the weaselly "I'd be remiss"? At this point, many hours after he failed to acknowledge them, he pretty clearly is remiss. Just apologize already!
- regulation_d 5y ago
  I don't know the ad space particularly well, but the fact that Adweek named the Martin Agency its Agency of the Year for 2020 and 2021 suggests that it's not especially far removed from a "traditional ad agency", no?
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

by ldjb 5y ago

espadrine 5y ago

The situation seems a bit more complex. The Martin Agency’s proposal was rejected, but the idea of the QR code that they suggested remained in some minds. The creative firm they did the ad with was Accenture Interactive, see this: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6898989146246123520/ https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6898989...

hitekker 5y ago
More complex but still deceitful. Coinbase's own CMO gave credit to that ads agency, which the CEO of Coinbase did not acknowledge until he was criticized: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6899028049740869632/ https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6899028...
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- mrandish 5y ago
  It's also possible the CEO didn't know that the idea was pitched months earlier to people on his marketing team by another agency because his marketing team told him they came up with the idea internally. Hogging credit is, sadly, pretty common in corporate gamesmanship.
  - pm90 5y ago
    That’s plausible but makes him look rather gullible at not only having bought into that lie but using the example as evidence of the supposed inferiority of ad agencies. I’m not a politically adept person but even I can see that it puts into question his decision making skills as a CEO of a crypto firm. People in leadership positions generally need to be really good at calling bullshit otherwise they get surrounded by pliant yes-men.
    - Aeolun 5y ago
      I mean, he is CEO of a crypto firm.
    - InitialLastName 5y ago
      > decision making skills as a CEO of a crypto firm > really good at calling bullshit Maybe one of those things can tell us about the other?
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - Uehreka 5y ago
    Yeah, I don’t feel a ton of sympathy here. He wanted to seem a “tech cool kid” who disrupts traditional media and is above normal corporate stuff, and he either wasn’t willing to let the facts get in the way of that narrative, or just assumed that narrative must be true and that the facts would back him up. He’s either deceitful or sloppy, and both are bad looks.
  - lupire 5y ago
    His actual excuse (tweet 12) was that the ad agency did such a good job that he just assumed Coinbase owned them. Because he's just that entitled.

mmaunder 5y ago

His 'excuse' was posted 35 minutes after Kristen posted her comment, as tweet 12 in a thread, when tweet 11 in that thread was posted 12 hours earlier. Pro tip: Ninja edits don't work on Twitter. https://twitter.com/brian_armstrong/status/1495636944289775616 https://twitter.com/brian_armstrong/status/14956369442897756... https://twitter.com/Cavallokristen/status/1495811487897735170 https://twitter.com/Cavallokristen/status/149581148789773517... https://twitter.com/brian_armstrong/status/1495820351879659525 https://twitter.com/brian_armstrong/status/14958203518796595...

jancsika 5y ago
If only there were some kind of decentralized linked list of prohibitively-expensive-to-counterfeit ordered records that he could have leveraged to prove to the world that his twelfth statement preceded hers. Just imagine the vast set of use cases for such a data structure! Why it's enough to make one indiscriminately spam various web forums to tirelessly enumerated through all of them.
- TedDoesntTalk 5y ago
  Yet somehow the human race survived for 200,000 years without a block chain.
  - jancsika 5y ago
    Exactly my point: just imagine how fascinating the next 200,000 years will be with blockchain! When you think in those terms you realize how shameful it is that, say, HN isn't getting in on the ground floor and spawning a worker in every reader's browser to mine crypto. The energy expended to mine Bitcoin pales in comparison to the early mover opportunities lost each day from lack of action.
  - colejohnson66 5y ago
    Not really a valid argument. We survived millennia without a lot of things. The Industrial Revolution was only two centuries ago. It doesn't mean life was necessarily better before then.

mannykannot 5y ago

Ah, so The Martin Agency was not the entity he called "an outside agency" which "pitched us a bunch of standard super bowl ad ideas" in the second tweet of the thread? https://twitter.com/brian_armstrong/status/1495636114824380417 https://twitter.com/brian_armstrong/status/14956361148243804... My guess, which may be a tad speculative, is that there is an ongoing, but previously-confidential, dispute between Coinbase and the agency over whether and how much the former owes the latter for the work they did.

usehackernews 5y ago
Coinbase hired a new CMO. When that CMO joined, she decided to go with a different agency. A QR Code in a commercial is not novel, making the entire commercial a QR code is. Sounds like Martin Agency presented a commercial with QR codes, not a QR code commercial. Unless Martin Agency shares the slide, It’s impossible to claim it was MA’s idea. It sounds like her reply is the result of the Coinbase CMO cutting ties with her company.
- tehwebguy 5y ago
  Haha okay, her tweet says: “It was actually inspired by presentations our agency showed your team on 8/18 (pages 19-24) and 10/7 (pages 11-18) with ad concepts for the Super Bowl with floating QR codes on a blank screen.” https://twitter.com/cavallokristen/status/1495811487897735170?s=21 https://twitter.com/cavallokristen/status/149581148789773517...
  - m348e912 5y ago
    Right but did it say mimic a DVD screensaver? I really think she should show the goods if she wants to make light of the situation. BTW I'm kind of on her side, but don't make us take her word for it.
    - dillondoyle 5y ago
      I want to see the receipts too. But floating QR codes on a blank screen is pretty close to the end product. They should have made it bounce to the exact corner at end of the ad for any Office crazies

dougb5 5y ago

Is Martin Agency really dissimilar from the agencies that make other superbowl ads? What is a "traditional ad agency" anymore, even? And what's with the weaselly "I'd be remiss"? At this point, many hours after he failed to acknowledge them, he pretty clearly is remiss. Just apologize already!

regulation_d 5y ago
I don't know the ad space particularly well, but the fact that Adweek named the Martin Agency its Agency of the Year for 2020 and 2021 suggests that it's not especially far removed from a "traditional ad agency", no?

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]