{"id":114080,"date":"2026-02-09T23:41:29","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T23:41:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2026\/02\/09\/behind-the-t-mobile-coinbase-pop-showdown-at-super-bowl-60\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T23:42:55","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T23:42:55","slug":"behind-the-t-mobile-coinbase-pop-showdown-at-super-bowl-60","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2026\/02\/09\/behind-the-t-mobile-coinbase-pop-showdown-at-super-bowl-60\/","title":{"rendered":"Behind the T-Mobile-Coinbase Pop Showdown at Super Bowl 60"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Amid the celeb sightings<\/a>, 1990s nostalgia<\/a>, GLP-1s galore<\/a>, sports betting promos<\/a>, and AI overload<\/a> from final evening\u2019s Tremendous Bowl \u2014 the Backstreet Boys discovered themselves in their very own battle between manufacturers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Their 1999 hit \u201cI Need It That Manner\u201d was a shock efficiency throughout T-Cell\u2019s thirteenth consecutive Tremendous Bowl advert, which aired throughout the second quarter. It was flamboyant, foolish, and riddled with celeb cameos from the likes of rapper-rocker Machine Gun Kelly, comic Druski, and actor Pierson Fod\u00e9.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Throughout the identical quarter, a barely rejiggered model of the long-lasting boy band\u2019s \u201cEveryone (Backstreet\u2019s Again)\u201d anthem confirmed up in a lo-fi karaoke-inspired advert that was finally revealed to be an advert for the cryptocurrency alternate Coinbase. The model framed the spot as \u201can ode to crypto\u201d in a blog post<\/a>, saying it was meant to sign that crypto is for everybody, and pointing to the roughly 52 million Individuals who’ve used it.<\/p>\n

The thought to solid the band for T-Cell\u2019s spot, and license \u201cI Need It That Manner,\u201d got here from Andrew Panay, the producer of Marriage ceremony Crashers and head of Panay Movies, which is liable for a lot of T-Cell\u2019s flashiest industrial campaigns.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He determined to rent the group after a \u201creligious\u201d expertise final summer time watching the band carry out at The Sphere in Las Vegas, he beforehand told ADWEEK<\/a>.<\/p>\n

However there was competitors over licensing rights, as a number of manufacturers had been fascinated by utilizing the tune for a Tremendous Bowl advert, Panay mentioned. \u201cI licensed the tune, I put cash down, after which extra manufacturers got here after it,\u201d he mentioned. It nearly amounted to a bidding conflict, he mentioned, \u201chowever I ended it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

T-Cell declined to remark.<\/p>\n

Coinbase mentioned it wasn\u2019t one of many manufacturers that went after \u201cI Need It That Manner,\u201d and that it had deliberate to make use of \u201cEveryone\u201d because the early days of planning.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The model\u2019s karaoke-style spot got here collectively rapidly after the model\u2019s artistic company, the New York-based Isle of Any, proposed the thought within the fall of 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was a clean course of as a result of the thought was \u201cwildly participatory,\u201d mentioned Joe Staples, vp of artistic at Coinbase. The Tremendous Bowl expertise, he mentioned, is like going to a karaoke, with the get together ambiance, the consuming, and folks huddled across the TV like a campfire. \u201cSimilar quantity of individuals, identical quantity of inebriation, identical quantity of playfulness. It simply appeared to suit.\u201d<\/p>\n

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However Coinbase felt the strain to ship standout artistic 4 years after making a Tremendous Bowl splash in 2022 with its well-known 60-second spot displaying a floating QR code \u2014 a defining second that helped Coinbase stand out in opposition to a discipline of rivals throughout the so-called \u201cCrypto Bowl.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since that second, crypto\u2019s star has pale. FTX, a one-time Coinbase competitor that additionally marketed in that Tremendous Bowl, has since been bankrupted<\/a> and seen its founder Sam Bankman-Fried imprisoned for fraud<\/a>. A frenzied crypto selloff this month<\/a>, in the meantime, has seen Bitcoin\u2019s worth drop 20% because the begin of 2026.<\/p>\n

Coinbase was the one crypto model that invested in a Tremendous Bowl spot this 12 months, and it did so regardless of business headwinds and the rising value of Tremendous Bowl media \u2014 NBCUniversal charged upwards of $10 million for some 30-second in-game spots<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere aren\u2019t many boards with 120 million individuals watching,\u201d Staples mentioned.<\/p>\n

Coinbase believed the Backstreet Boys had been the perfect car for its message, and it wasn\u2019t deterred once they realized \u201cearly on\u201d that T-Cell was working with the band for its personal Tremendous Bowl spot.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The truth is, Staples mentioned, Coinbase doesn\u2019t thoughts the comparisons of its advert with T-Cell\u2019s, as a result of the approaches are distinct \u2014 and each manufacturers may profit from the chatter pitting the 2 in opposition to one another.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Plus, \u201cThey\u2019re very totally different approaches to promoting,\u201d Staples mentioned.<\/p>\n

Andrew Panay didn\u2019t say whether or not T-Cell knew that Coinbase was additionally airing a Backstreet Boys spot. However the truth that each manufacturers did was testomony to the band\u2019s enduring cultural sway, he mentioned.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Backstreet Boys have legacy, they’ve freshness, they’ve long-time followers, new followers, female and male followers. Gen Z and boomers know their music. They’ve extraordinarily broad enchantment,\u201d he mentioned.<\/p>\n

Neither manufacturers specified the full funding worth of their campaigns.<\/p>\n

Promoting business insiders had been amused and stunned by the Backstreet Boys bombardment Sunday evening. \u201cTwo advertisements that includes the Backstreet Boys was not on my Tremendous Bowl bingo card,\u201d Jon Laughlin, chief artistic officer at Laughlin Constable, mentioned.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Many creatives who spoke with ADWEEK most popular the Coinbase spot.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe winner for me, for certain, is the Coinbase spot,\u201d mentioned Annika Welander, CEO of artistic company Someoddpilot. \u201cI like artistic that punches to this point out of its weight class.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amir Sahba, founder and CEO of artistic company Thinkingbox, nonetheless, felt T-Cell received the Backstreet Bowl: \u201cT-Cell gave us one thing to really feel. Coinbase gave us one thing complicated to determine in actual time.\u201dRegardless of the various reactions, T-Cell\u2019s spot ranked a lot larger than Coinbase\u2019s on EDO\u2019s TV Outcomes rankings<\/a>, which measure the affect of every advert within the recreation based mostly on rapid engagements which might be most predictive of future sales<\/a>. On that evaluation, T-Cell\u2019s advert was seventeenth out of 98, whereas Coinbase\u2019s ranked forty seventh.<\/p>\n

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Watch each T-Cell\u2019s and Coinbase\u2019s full Tremendous Bowl 60 advertisements under.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n