Luno-don Underground

Not that there's anyone to see them because of the new Tier 4 lockdown restrictions now hitting the South East of the UK (where I live) but adverts are now popping up on the London Underground (i.e. metro) from Luno and Coinfloor over the last few days from an article I read on Coindesk. Apparently (and probably unsurprisingly), the cost of advertising on the Underground has drastically reduced this year due to everyone being locked down and not really having a need to travel on the trains.

Less people, less eyeballs on the product you're advertising, less cost to place your advert due to not much competition I guess!

Bad Timing?

Having said that, the article from Coindesk was written on December 14th which was when London was still in Tier 2. In this tier of lockdown in the UK, you could go out and about to meet people outside, sporting events had limited spectators but still thousands would travel to match day events, plus theatres and with non-essential shops still open, plenty of people would be travelling around, add to that last minute Christmas shopping.

As of 20th December though, Tier 4 has meant we're basically in complete lockdown. Non-essential shops closed, not allowed to meet up unless it's with 1 other person outside for a walk and only allowed to travel to work if you can't work from home. I have a feeling that the eyes on those advertisements will be far less than what Luno and Coinfloor would have been expecting but for those who are travelling on the tube and catch that golden B logo in their line of site, it might lure some in with headlines like:

Love that haha!

Global Campaign

From what I gather in that article, and maybe my friends in South Africa, Nigeria & Australia can verify, this is part of a massive global campaign from Luno to get more people buying up Bitcoin easily (and it is easy), making it more accessible to anyone who feels like it's way too complex to get involved with. I mean... it's not hard at all these days and I've enjoyed the daily recurring buys of BTC throughout this year - those notifications that a few more sats are making their way to my BTC savings account of 4% (over 4x what I'm getting with fixed term savings rate in the bank, which is soon to be 0.1% or less).

Cause for Optimism?

My personal opinion is that this is pretty great to see more adverts for Bitcoin in the public domain and even just getting the logo of the granddaddy out there and increasing awareness of it will start to bring it in to people's lives a bit more. My beloved Arsenal FC (hey quiet at the back there!) entered a partnership with a crypto-backed betting company called Sportsbet that you may see advertised on their digital billboards, which is arguably more exciting than their football as of late LOL! I've also seen other Premiership clubs in London have sponsors from crypto based companies too advertising to buy bitcoin.

The discussions around BTC now are getting a little bit further beyond it being a "dodgy scheme" although we've still got a long way to go until we're out of the woods with this association for sure. Slowly but surely, I reckon we'll get there - maybe 10 years before "Bitcoin" is tossed around as casually in conversation as at your local chippy:

"I'll have a Large Fish & Chips please"
"Yes sir. That will be 40,000 sats please"
"40,000 sats? PAH! Is this Bitcoin Fish & Chip day or what?!"

How is crypto being advertised where you are and are you seeing more of it in the public domain? How long do you think it will take before crypto will start becoming part of everyday conversation or will it be forever condemned as a "dodgy scheme"? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

Take care (especially in these times)

Nicky

P.S. If you're interested in signing up to Luno, here's a referral link - any questions, fire away in the comments!

Referral Link for LUNO

1. Sign up with the invite link
2. Deposit and buy GBP 100 in BTC (Luno exchange not included)
3. We both get GBP 10.00 free BTC

Originally posted here