Challenge
The main goal behind Grayscale Investments’ #DropGold campaign was to ignite a discussion around gold vs bitcoin – challenging the notion that gold is a stalwart investment and misperceptions that bitcoin is not. In many ways, bitcoin can be considered ‘digital gold’ and should play a role in investors’ portfolios as a hedge against market dislocations and recessions. While the #DropGold campaign set out to persuade people of the bitcoin investment opportunity, it also aimed to elevate the legitimacy of digital currencies as a whole. The campaign’s TV commercial was the first nationally aired ad of its kind. The campaign sparked an industry-wide debate about gold vs bitcoin. Additionally, the campaign introduced GBTC for the first time to a much wider retail audience – the only crypto investment product of its kind that provides investors with exposure to bitcoin through their brokerage accounts. While the #DropGold campaign set out to persuade people of the bitcoin investment opportunity, it also aimed to elevate the legitimacy of digital currencies as a whole. The campaign’s TV commercial was the first nationally aired ad of its kind. The campaign sparked an industry-wide debate about gold vs bitcoin. Additionally, the campaign introduced GBTC for the first time to a much wider retail audience – the only crypto investment product of its kind that provides investors with exposure to bitcoin through their brokerage accounts.
Solution
For this to be effective, we needed to have a strong point of view, a compelling content destination, and highly engaging amplification across channels. These initiatives lead Vested to create an immersive content destination housing videos, content, and relevant information on a beautiful, custom microsite for the campaign. The paid, earned, shared and owned tactics above were executed by the Vested team through a series of strategic teases, pitches and roll-outs. Prior to Drop Gold’s official public launch, Vested vaguely teased out the release of the commercial and subsequent campaign on Grayscale’s social media accounts, telling followers to keep an eye on the space. Next, we pre-pitched the commercial to reporters to gauge initial interest and reaction and to secure some solid coverage in tandem with the official launch. As the full campaign was rolled out across all platforms over the course of 24 hours, it quickly picked up traction. First, the commercial aired and started to cause a stir amongst the gold community (links below). Next, Vested pushed out all of the associated ads while simultaneously pushing the website live and proactively pitching additional publications for coverage. The combined efforts resulted in an elevated dialogue around bitcoin as “digital gold” and intense debate over bitcoin versus gold in the weeks and months that followed.
Results
The campaign received more than 150 pieces of coverage across print and media and sparked engagement via social media, fueling a conversation about gold’s future and a stronger bitcoin as “digital gold” narrative.
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