The best creative campaigns do more than attract attention. They give people something to do.

I selected five fintech and Web3 campaigns built around a distinctive participation mechanic, with measurable evidence of attention, adoption, fundraising, retail distribution or competitive impact. These were not necessarily the campaigns with the biggest production budgets. In several cases, the idea itself did most of the distribution work.

Here is the quick version:

1. Coinbase turned a Super Bowl ad into an interactive landing page

Brand: Coinbase
Campaign: Less Talk, More Bitcoin
Year: 2022
Category: Crypto exchange / fintech

The challenge

The 2022 Super Bowl was crowded with crypto advertising.

Crypto.com had LeBron James. FTX featured Larry David. Other brands arrived with celebrity-heavy commercials, expensive production and long explanations about the future of money.

Coinbase chose almost the exact opposite. It needed to make an unfamiliar financial product memorable, but another polished crypto commercial would probably have disappeared into the same celebrity-driven noise.

The idea

For 60 seconds, Coinbase showed little more than a coloured QR code bouncing around a black screen like an old DVD screensaver.

There was no narrator explaining Bitcoin. No founder interview. No cinematic story about financial freedom.

Viewers had to scan the code to understand what they were watching.

The QR code opened a promotion that offered new users $15 in Bitcoin and entry into a larger giveaway. In one move, Coinbase compressed the whole funnel:

Television exposure → curiosity → QR scan → landing page → account incentive

The ad created an information gap. People could not fully understand it by watching passively, which made interaction part of the creative.

What happened

Coinbase reported approximately 20 million visits within one minute, temporarily overwhelming its infrastructure.

One retrospective analysis reported that the Coinbase app moved from 186th to second place in the US App Store. The campaign also won the 2022 Super Clio for the best Super Bowl advertisement.

The infrastructure failure was obviously not ideal. Still, it became a second story that extended the campaign’s earned-media reach: so many people scanned the code that Coinbase could not handle the traffic.

Why it worked

Most Super Bowl advertisers treated the slot as a branding opportunity. Coinbase treated it as a live-response channel.

The execution was strong for a few reasons:

• It looked completely different from the commercials around it.
• The audience had to take an immediate, measurable action.
• The Bitcoin reward gave people a reason to finish the account-opening flow.
• The production itself was radically simple compared with the cost of the media placement.
• The traffic spike generated another wave of discussion after the commercial ended.

My read: the simplicity was not a cost-saving trick. It was the strategy.

Coinbase moved the product interaction directly into the advertising. The QR code was simultaneously the visual, the CTA and the entrance to the conversion funnel.

Strategic lesson

• When every competitor is adding more explanation, a campaign may become more distinctive by removing almost everything.
• But there is an important operational lesson here too. If a mass-media campaign depends on immediate interaction, the infrastructure has to be prepared for demand far beyond normal product traffic.

2. Cash App made sending money part of internet culture

Brand: Cash App
Strategy: Cash App Fridays, $Cashtags and hip-hop partnerships
Period: From 2017 onward
Category: Consumer payments

The challenge

Cash App was competing with Venmo, which already had strong network effects and a close association with social payments among younger US consumers.

Matching Venmo feature for feature would not have created a distinct identity. Cash App needed a reason for people to talk about the product, share it publicly and invite others into the network.

Its answer was to build around the way money was already moving through creator communities, Black Twitter and hip-hop culture.

The idea

Cash App turned the product into the campaign mechanic.

Users received public, memorable $Cashtags that could be shared on social media. During Cash App Fridays, the company distributed money to people who engaged with its accounts.

Artist partnerships pushed the model further. Campaigns involving Travis Scott, Megan Thee Stallion, Cardi B and others allowed fans to receive money rather than simply watch a celebrity endorsement.

Instead of telling users that Cash App made transfers easy, the campaigns demonstrated the product publicly.

How the distribution loop worked

The strategy connected several actions:

1. Artists and creators offered money to fans through Cash App.
2. Participants posted their $Cashtags publicly.
3. Those posts exposed the product to wider social networks.
4. Cash App Fridays gave users a recurring reason to follow and mention the brand.
5. Organic references in rap lyrics strengthened the association between Cash App and internet culture.

GQ reported that Cash App accumulated hundreds of references in rap lyrics and deliberately supported that connection through artist partnerships and social giveaways.

The important part is that the product name and the user’s payment identity travelled together. Every public $Cashtag was both a participation entry and a small piece of product distribution.

What happened

By July 2018, Cash App was downloaded more times than Venmo during the month and ranked above it in Apple’s free finance-app category.

That result cannot be attributed exclusively to Cash App Fridays or any single creator campaign. Product development, market conditions and wider distribution also mattered.

Still, it showed that Cash App’s broader product-and-culture strategy had helped it challenge an incumbent with a powerful existing network.

Why it worked

A conventional celebrity partnership usually ends with attention. People watch the post, recognise the name and move on.

Cash App partnerships required the audience to participate:

• Understand what Cash App was.
• Create or share a $Cashtag.
• Engage publicly with the campaign.
• Potentially receive money through the product.

Creators used Cash App to deliver the promotion. This turned paid partnerships into product demonstrations, acquisition funnels and user-generated distribution at the same time.

Strategic lesson

• Fintech marketing gets more powerful when the financial action is visible inside the content.
• A payments company can ask a creator to talk about transfers. Or it can design a campaign in which the creator actually transfers money to the audience.
• The second version makes the product easier to understand because the demonstration is the message.

There is a harder lesson as well: cultural relevance cannot simply be purchased. Cash App’s partnerships worked because they strengthened language and behaviour that were already developing organically around the product.

3. Monzo transformed customers into shareholders and distributors

Brand: Monzo
Campaign: Customer equity crowdfunding
Years: 2016 and 2018
Category: Digital banking

The challenge

Early challenger banks had a trust problem.

Consumers were used to institutions with long histories, large branch networks and familiar names. Monzo, still known as Mondo during its early period, needed to convince people that a young digital bank could be trusted with something as sensitive as their money.

It also wanted users to feel that they were helping to build the company rather than simply buying another financial service.

The idea

Monzo allowed customers to invest directly in the business.

Technically, these were equity crowdfunding rounds. From a marketing perspective, they also worked as loyalty, community and advocacy campaigns.

Customers were invited to move through several levels of participation:
Product user → community member → shareholder → advocate

In 2016, Mondo raised £1 million in 96 seconds, establishing what was reported as a crowdfunding speed record.

In 2018, Monzo raised £20 million from 36,006 investors. It reached almost £18 million within the first three hours and completed the round in just over two days.

Crowdfunding was only one part of the system

Monzo had already built a participatory relationship with its early users:

• Customers tested early versions of the product.
• The community submitted approximately 10,000 suggestions when the company needed a new name.
• Existing users received “golden tickets” that allowed friends to skip the account waiting list.
• Customers were later given opportunities to own shares in the company.

Wired reported that this involvement encouraged customers to promote Monzo through word of mouth almost as though they belonged to an exclusive club.

The crowdfunding rounds worked because they gave financial form to an identity that already existed.

Why it worked

Traditional banks often construct authority through size, history and distance. Monzo built trust through access and participation.

The rapid fundraising created several useful signals at once:

• Demand for the shares suggested strong customer belief.
• Scarcity created urgency.
• Customer ownership deepened identification with the company.
• Every shareholder had another reason to follow and discuss Monzo’s progress.
• The speed of the raises became a media story in its own right.

Strategic lesson

• Ownership can become a marketing asset, but only when it follows genuine participation.
• Giving users equity, tokens or contributor status does not automatically create a loyal community. The sequence matters:
  Participation → identity → ownership → distribution
• When people already believe they helped build something, ownership can strengthen advocacy. Without that earlier relationship, it may become little more than another incentive.

4. Reddit onboarded millions to Web3 without leading with Web3

Brand: Reddit
Campaign: Collectible Avatars
Year: 2022
Category: Web3 collectibles / social platform

The challenge

Mainstream NFT onboarding was full of friction.

A new user might have needed to install a wallet, store a seed phrase, buy cryptocurrency, understand gas fees, choose a marketplace and then work out which NFT to buy.

Reddit already had a strong culture around usernames, profiles and custom avatars. But explicitly promoting NFTs to a mainstream audience could have triggered resistance before users even saw the product.

The idea

Reddit sold Collectible Avatars rather than building the campaign around the term “NFT.”

Independent Reddit artists created the designs. Users could purchase the avatars and display them inside Reddit’s existing avatar system. Blockchain ownership was handled through Reddit’s Vault wallet, reducing the amount of technical knowledge required before purchase.

The communication focused on identity, artwork and platform utility rather than speculation.

In simple terms, Reddit changed the journey from this:
Buy cryptocurrency → install wallet → find marketplace → buy NFT

To this:
Choose avatar → pay → display it on Reddit

Why the onboarding felt familiar

Reddit connected the blockchain product to behaviour that already existed on the platform:

• Users were accustomed to customising their avatars.
• Artists already had reputations and communities on Reddit.
• The collectibles could be used immediately.
• The wallet was integrated into the Reddit experience.
• Some avatars were distributed for free, widening the top of the funnel.

Users did not need to become interested in blockchain before becoming interested in the product.

What happened

By October 2022, Reddit users had reportedly created more than three million Polygon wallets.

Secondary-market sales of Reddit avatars increased by approximately 800% in one week. One Spooky Season collection generated around $1.4 million from approximately 1,500 avatar sales.

At that point, Reddit had onboarded a wallet audience comparable in size to estimates of the total number of Ethereum wallets holding NFTs during the previous NFT boom – without making cryptocurrency the centre of the consumer message.

The important caveat

Strong onboarding does not guarantee durable retention.

Reddit later announced that it would end its blockchain Vault functionality, with users instructed to export their wallets by January 1, 2026.

So this case should not be presented as proof that every part of the programme created permanent strategic value. It is a case of exceptional onboarding, followed by a reminder that wallet creation, short-term trading and initial curiosity are not the same as long-term product retention.

Strategic lesson

• The strongest consumer Web3 campaigns may barely mention Web3.
• Blockchain can expand what the user owns or can do, while the marketing focuses on the actual benefit: identity, access, status, artwork or participation.
• Users do not need a technical lecture before they receive value.

5. Pudgy Penguins used Walmart as a Web3 acquisition channel

Brand: Pudgy Penguins
Campaign: Pudgy Toys and Pudgy World
Years: 2023–2024
Category: NFT brand / consumer IP

The challenge

After NFT trading activity collapsed, most projects were competing for a shrinking group of crypto-native collectors.

Digital assets alone were no longer a reliable route to mainstream growth. Pudgy Penguins needed to become relevant to people who did not own cryptocurrency, did not use NFT marketplaces and might have no interest in blockchain at all.

The project looked outside the existing NFT market.

The idea

Instead of asking mainstream consumers to enter an NFT marketplace, Pudgy Penguins placed physical toys in major retail stores.

Each toy included a QR code that unlocked a digital experience in Pudgy World.

This reversed the normal Web3 funnel:

Typical Web3 funnel:
Wallet → cryptocurrency → NFT → community

Pudgy Penguins funnel:
Toy → character → QR code → digital experience → wider Web3 ecosystem

The physical product could still succeed as a toy even when the buyer knew nothing about NFTs.

How the model connected physical and digital ownership

The strategy brought together four groups:

This was more developed than simply printing NFT artwork on merchandise.

The holder-licensing model gave some community members a direct connection to the expansion of the intellectual property. Meanwhile, the retail product gave the brand distribution far beyond crypto-native media.

What happened

Pudgy Toys entered approximately 2,000 Walmart stores in September 2023.

By February 2024, the footprint had expanded by more than 50% to approximately 3,100 stores.

Axios also noted that Pudgy Penguins was one of the relatively few major NFT collections whose value had been rising during the wider NFT downturn.

Before the Walmart expansion, the collection’s minimum price had approximately doubled following the project’s acquisition and repositioning under Luca Netz, while trading activity remained comparatively stable.

Why it worked

Most NFT brands were still trying to extract more attention and value from existing holders. Pudgy Penguins built an acquisition channel outside the NFT market.

The strategy had several advantages:

• The toy required no prior crypto knowledge.
• Walmart provided distribution that crypto media could not match.
• Physical characters were understandable to children and families.
• The QR code created an optional path into the digital ecosystem.
• Holder licensing aligned parts of the community with mainstream brand growth.

Strategic lesson

• Web3 brands may grow faster when blockchain acts as the ownership and coordination layer rather than the main consumer proposition.
• A useful model is:
  Mainstream product → simple digital extension → optional ownership layer
• Starting with the product dramatically expands the addressable market. Starting with token ownership limits the campaign to people who have already decided to enter Web3.

What these five campaigns have in common

The channels were completely different: television, social media, crowdfunding, platform avatars and physical retail. But the underlying creative logic was surprisingly consistent.

Participation replaced passive exposure

People did not simply watch the campaigns. They scanned, received money, invested, collected or unlocked something.

The audience had a role inside the idea.

The product became part of the media

Coinbase used its landing page and reward flow. Cash App used transfers. Monzo used shares. Reddit used avatars. Pudgy Penguins used toys and QR codes.

In each case, the marketing mechanic helped users understand or experience the product.

Users received visible value

The reward was different in every campaign:

• Bitcoin
• Cash
• Equity
• A profile identity
• A physical toy and digital experience

The strongest incentives were not disconnected prizes. They were tied to what the product actually offered.

Participation was socially observable

People posted $Cashtags, displayed avatars, discussed their Monzo shares and carried Pudgy Penguins products into the physical world.

This gave users ways to redistribute the brand through their own behaviour.

Complexity stayed behind the interface

The underlying systems were not simple. They involved financial accounts, equity ownership, blockchain wallets, NFT infrastructure and licensing rights.

Yet each campaign reduced the audience’s first step to one understandable action.

That may be the most useful lesson from all five examples.

Creative fintech and Web3 marketing is rarely just unusual advertising. The stronger opportunity is to redesign how people enter the product, experience its value and share it with others.

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Author note

Written by Stacy Muur, founder of Green Dots. Green Dots works with Web3 teams on GTM strategy, creator-led distribution, founder growth, and launch architecture.