Daily June 10

Last fall, cryptic messages began showing atop the iconic Columbus Circle billboard in New York City. Along with the temperature and time, the sign at first showed words from a now-famous white paper written by Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonym for the creator of bitcoin. Later, it started displaying “dad jokes” like: “What do you call a crypto turkey? A HODL HODL HODL.”

Turned out it was all an ad for the crypto exchange Gemini, which bought a three-year lease for the billboard. (The company has been buying out-of-home ads since 2019; it ran ads on Los Angeles buses that promised: “Crypto without chaos.”)

Additional coverage:

  • “We’re looking at a downturn and a slowdown, we don’t see a recession,” according to Zeta cofounder and CEO David Steinberg. He shares this and other reflections on the quarter.
  • How Full Squad Gaming’s influencer-powered approach reflects the future of gaming and esports media.
  • While several agency execs say clients aren’t yet looking to pull back on ad spending, they are aiming to be more pragmatic in the second half of the year as well as next year.
  • What if…things turned out differently for AppNexus? The could’ve beens are vast; all hypotheticals involve a fair amount of speculation; though AppNexus’ history is littered with a series of near misses and close calls that make the could’ve-been-list nearly endless.
  • Time is projecting its events business will bring in at least $10 million in revenue this year for the first time.