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Progressive Insurance’s Dr. Rick made a cameo, Smartwater ad-bombed the proceedings and Dude Wipes declared a premature victory.
All in all, Liquid Death’s recently concluded eBay auction lived up to its pre-launch hype, resulting in 200-plus bids, a mostly good-natured brand pile-on and a robust social media discussion, with comments actually worth reading.
The winner ultimately turned out to be Coinbase after the crypto company agreed to pay $500,114 for a unique media buy on a half-million Liquid Death packages.
Because of technical glitches during the process, Liquid Death took extra time to study bids and announce results, invalidating Dude Wipes’ claim that its $355,500 bid had come out on top.
“While the Dudes are used to being around a lot of sh*t, winning the auction and then being dumped by Liquid Death really stinks,” per the brand’s statement.
‘Breaking the media mold’
Liquid Death’s Super Bowl-adjacent stunt had been billed as more valuable than a 30-second Big Game commercial, which sold for nearly $7 million and reached a record-breaking audience of 123 million viewers this year. By contrast, 200 million people shop at the brand’s retail outlets every week, per Liquid Death.
Coinbase, known for its own quirky ad during Super Bowl 56, dove into the bidding war because “breaking the media mold works,” according to Kate Rouch, chief marketing officer at the brand.
The floating QR code from Coinbase’s 2022 ad sent more than 20 million people to the brand’s application within 60 seconds of the commercial’s broadcast, Rouch said, setting the stage for further experimentation.
“We see the Liquid Death tiny billboards as a truly valuable media placement, with the potential to reach over 200 million people, and their phones, every week through multiple retailers nationwide,” Rouch said. “Like Coinbase, Liquid Death has a cult following, is internet native and understands how to deliver big, bold ideas that cut through the noise—it’s no accident that they thought outside (inside?) the box, or that we saw this idea for the genius it was.”
The auction “blew away our expectation,” per Andy Pearson, Liquid Death’s vice president of creative.
