What was the most money ever spent by a Retail FX broker on a single ad?

Well, this one probably takes the prize.

With the USA’s most looked-forward-to TV advertising day coming up next Sunday with the Super Bowl LVI championship game in American Football set for February 13, advertising sources are reporting that eToro is planning on running a national ad during the game.

While Super Bowl broadcaster NBC hasn’t released official data, advertising industry sources are reporting that 30-second spots for this year’s game are selling at a record USD $6.5 million, up about 20% from last year.

Advertising site AdAge has reported that eToro’s ad is being produced with agency Alldayeveryday, and media partner Juice Media. The speculation is that the ad will center around eToro’s crypto trading offering. Other crypto trading firms running Super Bowl ads this year include Crypto.com and FTX. eToro even released a six-second teaser for the ad, which states “2.13.2022, You Asked We’re Coming”, and tagged it as From Sunday, investing will never be the same. Come #FlyWithUs.

Interestingly, eToro itself ran an article around this time last year entitled Super Bowl ads and their effect on the stock market. The premise of the analysis in the article is that there is a positive correlation between a company’s Super Bowl ad likeability, and its subsequent stock price. This could certainly help explain why eToro is spending such a large sum, advertising to what is basically a US-only audience.

eToro is in the midst of going public, in the US, via a merger with a SPAC (FinTech Acquisition V). While US regulatory rules won’t allow eToro to advertise its IPO, it certainly can advertise its brand and its offering, with the hope that it will reflect well with potential eToro stockholders.

The eToro “IPO” is actually in a bit of trouble, at least as far as its original plans unveiled nearly a year ago (in March 2021) are concerned. The deal, originally scheduled to close last year in Q3, has been postponed several times. In late December eToro lowered the planned valuation of the company (post-deal) from just over $10 billion to $8.8 billion. However that original $10 billion+ valuation was set when eToro rival Robinhood was getting its IPO ready at a $30B+ valuation. Robinhood (NASDAQ:HOOD) went public in July 2021 at $38 a share, saw that balloon quickly to $85 in early August, but since has fallen steadily to just $13.91.

At its current price Robinhood has a valuation of just under $12 billion. It might be hard to justify an $8.8 billion going-public value for eToro based on that comparison alone.