TD Ameritrade: Case study

Credits & Description:

Brand TD AMERITRADE
Entrant HAVAS NEW YORK
HAVAS NEW YORK New York, USA Entrant Company
HAVAS NEW YORK New York, USA Idea Creation
HAVAS FORMULA New York, USA PR
Harry Bernstein Havas New York Chief Creative Officer
Israel Garber Havas New York Global Executive Creative Director
Keith Scott Havas New York Executive Creative Director
Paul Johnson Havas New York Executive Creative Director
Peter Gosselin Havas New York Creative Director
Jay Hunt Havas New York Creative Director
Alexis Carr Havas New York Copywriter
Keegan Sanford Havas New York Junior Art Director
Matt DeCoste Havas New York Associate Creative Director (Web)
Jess Davis Havas New York Associate Creative Director (Web)
Allyn Scherr Havas New York Junior Art Director
Stuart Culpepper Havas New York Group Director, Product & Experience
James Cloughen Havas New York Digital Producer
Tim Maleeny Havas New York President / Chief Strategy Officer
Casey Ritts Havas New York Group Account Director
Elaine Purcell Havas New York Group Strategy Director
Darah Rifkin Havas New York Account Director
Danny Wang Havas New York Director of Technology
William Lin Havas New York Solution Architect
Angus Lo Havas New York User Experience Technologist
Eric Nichols Havas New York Web Developer
Denise Karkos TD Ameritrade Chief Marketing Officer
Kerin Morrison TD Ameritrade Managing Director, Brand & Advertising
Justin Garcia TD Ameritrade Director, Advertising & Social
Jim Crews TD Ameritrade Senior Manager, Social Media Marketing
Execution
At its most basic level, the blockchain is a ledger that logs transactions. So how did we turn those transactions into an ad? With a function of the blockchain called OP_Return, which works like the memo space on a check, simple messages and characters can be placed within transactions in the blockchain. Using ASCII art, we painstakingly linked 68 individual Bitcoin transactions, featuring 80 characters per transaction, to design a larger image—the image of the flag being planted—a symbol which spoke to the originality of the execution as well as our rich history of innovation. And all on a shoestring budget of $23.15 USD (just 0.002856 BTC). Within the context of the blockchain, part of the idea was itself was a challenge to discover the ad - which is part of the charm for those who explore the blockchain. However, for the majority, the experience was accessed via a dedicated site which housed all of the individual transactions in one macro view.

Campaign Description
Because cryptocurrency and the blockchain are the most talked about, reported, discussed, and hyped financial terms of the year, TD Ameritrade's offering of Bitcoin futures was in danger of getting lost in the mania. So, rather than talking about blockchain, we decided to let the blockchain do our talking. The idea was simple: we needed to embed the first ever ad in the technology... except for one small caveat: the blockchain is decentralized, highly immutable, unchangeable, and unhackable. So how could we find a way to place a message into the most secure ledger in the world?