An NPC, or in other words, a secondary character in a video game, breaks free from its programmed code and finds its own path to the real world. It is the story with which the cryptocurrency platform Coinbase invites users to take control and discover an alternative to the traditional financial system. He captures it in a highly produced advertisement that will air during the Oscars ceremony on Sunday, March 15.
Created by Coinbase Creative Studio together with the Isle of Any agency and directed by Oscar Hudson, through the production company MJZ, the spot is titled “Your Way Out” and presents the company as an option to boost financial growth through digital currencies. It presents the traditional financial system as one that aligns users, while highlighting its proposal by focusing on control.
Set in the world of a video game, the story presents a character who decides to take control of his life and free himself. In an action sequence, he flees to the limits of the online universe and finally arrives in a new world inhabited by real humans. “Have you ever felt life like a video game where you have no control? In a broken financial system, you have no control over almost anything until you take the first step. Coinbase is your outlet”, the brand explained when sharing the announcement on digital platforms and social networks.
The advertisement stands out for its production and craftsmanship. According to reports adweekCoinbase has dispensed with visual effects, and has built the video game world with real actors and physical sets. The actors wore printed masks and prosthetics that pixelated their faces and gave them rigid, angular features typical of video game characters. The sets were designed to appear low-resolution and deliberately monotonous, with aesthetic and narrative devices that evoke great titles like “Grand Theft Auto” or “The Sims.”
The setting in the gaming world is key to conveying Coinbase’s message and positioning. “Life is a game; Sometimes it seems like someone else is in control. This was the starting point of the idea, and we loved the idea of using it to tell a story about taking back control and leaving one world, the financial system we know, to find another with Coinbase”, commented Laurie Howell, Founder and Creative Director at Isle of Any, to shots.
The ad contrasts with the aesthetic simplicity of the one created by the company for the Super Bowl last February. In that one, titled “Everybody Coinbase”, he proposed a karaoke session to the rhythm of the hit “Everybody” by the Backstreet Boys, highlighting some of its virtues. Two years earlier, also during the Super Bowl, the brand simply issued a bouncing QR code that looked like an old-fashioned screensaver.
