Coinbase Hits Reset on the Financial System

The 'blue screen of death' is an almost Pavlovian concept - when it comes to digital products, it's a visual that we're programmed to respond to and an immediate signal that something is up with the system.

Which made it the perfect foundation for Coinbase’s new ad, 'The System Has Been Updated'. Created by indie agency Isle of Any, the spot reimagines this infamous digital death screen as a symbol of positive change in the financial world, brought to life through vibrant, code-inspired animation from BUCK.

"Crypto is fundamentally updating the financial system," says Toby Treyer-Evans, co-founder of Isle of Any, speaking with LBB. "So, to us it felt like an interesting place to start for the campaign, both as a film idea and as a way to play with the viewer and send a message. When you see it on TV, in the context of other advertising, it’s deliberately arresting… and blue being Coinbase’s brand colour is just one of those lovely coming togethers."

From beginning to end of the production process, every element was built using real code. "So, the challenge was bringing some feeling, joy and soul to something that is usually functional and sterile," adds Toby.

To kick off the process, they built a prototype to explore the idea and play with textures, tone and feeling. Then there was a lot of R&D with the team at BUCK, working to get something that they all felt was its "own thing," he says. "We used a mix of multiple animation techniques all at once to create something that felt really unique — character animation, fluid models that played with the individual code elements — all coming together to create ‘code come to life’ and as though you were ‘inside the update’."

Laurie Howell, Toby's fellow co-founder at Isle of Any and long-time creative partner, adds that it was a "fluid process, with lots of iteration." As well as BUCK, they worked with Cartel on the edit and Wave Studios on the sound design closely and simultaneously, "to bring the feeling and energy throughout – passing things to BUCK and back as we moved to create the final films."

So far, the spot seems to have landed positively with the crypto community. It also has the potential to educate those less close to the industry about a much-misunderstood concept.

Coinbase is a brand known for its playful and irrelevant tone, the most famous example being its 2022 QR code Super Bowl ad. And ultimately, Isle of Any wanted to build on that. "We wanted this campaign to feel like a hard reset of the financial system, with something unexpected and positive," says Laurie. "To wake people up from the way they currently use money and do it in a way that played with reality and their watching experience.

"In many ways this work is a little step towards where we are trying to go with Isle of Any - can we make the experience of something be part of the message itself?"