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Cade Cunningham faced the three-point contest, a new game format, and a steady stream of brand activations and events during his first NBA All-Star Weekend, including everything from an interview from TNT Inside the NBA personality Ernie Johnson at an American Express All-Star event to an appearance at Foot Locker’s giant activation just across Powell Street.
However, out of all the brand events and activities, one of the NBA star’s biggest challenges came down to a 17,000-pound robotic basketball hoop placed in front of him by Coinbase.
At the NBA Crossover fan festival at San Francisco’s Moscone Center, Cunningham’s partners at Coinbase invited him into the Coinbase Arena, a space ensconced in LED screens and centered around a robotic assembly arm mounted to a basketball backboard with sensors and a digital face.
In the activation, players stand at one of two free-throw keys and begin shooting at a backboard, which is mounted onto the aforementioned 17,000-pound Kuka industrial robot arm (capable of lifting 500 pounds) and laden with infrared sensors that tallied a player’s score, change the digital face on the backboard based on a player’s performance, and guide the robot’s movements to make things easier or more challenging.
Throughout the weekend, Coinbase kept a running tally of how participants had fared against the nimble robotic backboard, with the reigning champ being a Coinbase employee at the time Cunningham played. And despite being the Detroit Pistons’ No. 1 pick in the 2021 NBA Draft—and leading the team with more than 25 points and nine assists per game this year—Cunningham looked mortal against the machine.
As hundreds of fans looked on from beyond the arena windows, it took time for Cunningham to settle in with his shots. It didn’t help that the Coinbase employee who was leading at the time cheered when the NBA star fell short of his record at more than 19,000 points.
By Cunningham’s third attempt, playtime was over.
“I just knew what was coming a little more. I knew the routine,” Cunningham said. “The first couple times, I was caught off guard by the robot moving on me. So, that last time, I had a better feel. I think my scouting report was a little better on the robot.”
Eventually, Cunningham scored more than 20,000 points, which was the best of the weekend among Coinbase’s NBA partners, including the Golden State Warriors’ Draymond Green, the Miami Heat’s Andrew Wiggins, and the Los Angeles Clippers’ James Harden—who spiked the ball out of frustration with the robot at one point during his session. But Cunningham didn’t have the top score of the weekend: That belonged to an anonymous shooter known only as Jacob M.
That shooter was one of 1,200 people who tried the activation during a three-day period—setting up a digital Coinbase wallet and having their score tallied and delivered through the blockchain. From that group, 1,176 people had digital collectibles made to commemorate the event, 375 downloaded highlights from their session, and 11,091 views resulted at the Coinbase Arena microsite. Of those who took a survey afterward, 82% came away with a more favorable view of the brand, and 76% said they were more likely to consider using Coinbase.
The activation was built to show fans that they didn’t have to be pros to play against a robotic rim, nor did they need a wealth of expertise to open a digital wallet or get on the blockchain. What the arena, Cunningham, and the other Coinbase NBA stars also confirmed is that it’s sometimes easier to pitch a product in person than through platforms.
“Because it’s on the blockchain, Jacob, who was the number one scorer, that badge and that result is locked in history… that he beat four professional NBA players, two All-Stars, one Hall of Famer,” said Gary Sun, Coinbase’s vp of marketing. “And how fun is that for a user, that they can actually go up against these pros and make it accessible to compete, but the fun thing is that the pros like it as well.”
Learning the playbook
Cunningham received his first lessons in cryptocurrency shortly after he was drafted, signing a sponsorship deal with BlockFi that was built around crypto education and was supposed to pay him a bonus in cryptocurrency. BlockFi went bankrupt in 2022 and started returning assets to customers in 2023.
However, Cunningham later signed on with Coinbase and has been trying to learn more about it and add capital through it. Sometimes, that’s through more orthodox means, but other times, that’s through bets on the team plane with teammates who are short on cash but have Coinbase accounts.
“I am a little better with it now, [but] at the same time, I still have so much to learn about it as far as how to continue to grow and trade. I don’t think it’s my comfort zone when it comes to spending money through crypto,” Cunningham said. “I’m trying to keep winning bets and have [Pistons teammate] Tobias [Harris] give me that in Coinbase. Then I’d be blessed.”
To create its less fraught, real-life robotic blockchain tutorial at Coinbase Arena, Coinbase teamed up with digital creative firm Hovercraft. As Hovercraft executive director Matt FaJohn explained, both fans and NBA players entered the arena by creating a player ID within their Coinbase wallet.
When players scored on the hoop, it updated on both the leaderboard and in a player’s Coinbase wallet, with fans able to cash in those points for arena-branded merchandise at the end of the session. It was just the latest Hovercraft activation for Coinbase—including a 2024 NBA All-Star setup that let fans with Coinbase wallets skip the line and a cryptocurrency pizza day in New York’s Washington Square Park—designed to give fans and consumers practical experience on the blockchain.
“We would give people the ability to add cryptocurrency to their wallet and then, within the footprint, play, redeem, do a number of activations, and use them like credits or tokens just to really get that muscle memory of using a crypto wallet,” FaJohn said. “But this was the first time that we drove that end-to-end, on-chain experience.”
Grabbing the rebound
While many of the cryptocurrency players whose ads appeared during the 2022 crypto-heavy Super Bowl have since faded from view, Coinbase followed its floating QR code commercial that year with a strong sports marketing presence.
It’s produced digital collectibles for Borussia Dortmund, joined Aston Martin Aramco’s Formula 1 team, and backed esports’ Team Liquid. It’s been a WNBA partner since 2021, showing up in 12 arenas, and jumped aboard with the Warriors last year—handing out merchandise, digital collectibles, and prizes, including courtside seats and player meet-and-greets during a Coinbase Night.
That said, having hundreds of fans lined up each day of NBA Crossover during All-Star Weekend—amid a floor of other backboard- and player-heavy activations—illustrated why the experiential marketing behind those partnerships is so valuable.
“Every brand out there is trying to push the envelope and experiences that are not passive, they’re more active,” said Jordan Pories, creative director at Coinbase, during Crossover. “The great thing here is you can watch a film and be told something, but when you’re actually using it and experiencing it, you have it in your hand, you see how easy it is, you almost forget it’s even there. That’s the magic. That’s what experiences can do.”
