Digital Asset Company Spends Millions to Promote Founder’s Twitter Account

One of the first ads to run during Super Bowl LVII amounted to likely the costliest promoted tweet in history. 

The anime-inspired commercial for Limit Break included multiple QR codes that offered a “free digital collectible.” When scanned, the code took people to the blockchain gaming company CEO Gabriel Leydon’s personal Twitter page, which launched a window to follow Leydon.

But in many instances, the code didn’t even work.

Fox charged $6 million to $7 million for a 30-second ad. 

The ad is expected to be the only web3 ad during the game, a year after three crypto companies — the Crypto.com, Coinbase, and the now-defunct FTX — purchased ads. FTX’s bankruptcy, along with the huge dip in the value of digital assets, left the game with no crypto ads. 

“That created a little more inventory,” Mark Evans, Fox Sports executive VP of sales, said last week. 

Fox sold out its ad inventory for the Big Game on Jan. 23, according to Evans. 

The Limit Break site that was barren when Front Office Sports first reported on the ad last week is now fully populated, including listing several job openings. There are also executive bios, including one for Leydon that describes him as a “gifted game creator, bringing 23 years of game development and design.”

The ad worked in respect: Leydon’s follower count surpassed 900,000 minutes after the ad ran early in the first quarter.