Pudgy Penguins Wrap Las Vegas Sphere with Non-Crypto Campaign Amid Restrictive Policy
Pudgy Penguins executed a seven-day wrap campaign on the Las Vegas Sphere featuring an exosphere animation that emphasized their physical products such as toys, animations, and merchandise. The campaign notably did not mention NFTs or the Pengu coin, marking a shift away from their crypto roots. Inside the Sphere, the activation included screenings of The Wizard of Oz, while the animations focused solely on Pudgy Penguins and their merchandise without any crypto-related content.
The activation reportedly cost up to $600,000. This success is in contrast to an earlier attempt by Dogwifhat backers to advertise on the Sphere, which was not approved due to the venue's restrictive policy on crypto ads that allows only exchanges or Bitcoin-related advertising. The Sphere stated that the Dogwifhat campaign used the Sphere’s brand name fraudulently. Dogwifhat had raised about $700,000 for their campaign, but those funds were subsequently refunded to contributors.
Pudgy Penguins has diversified beyond its origins in crypto, expanding into physical products and various platforms beyond just NFT profile pictures. This includes the Solana meme coin PENGU, an Ethereum layer-2 network, and a physical toys line, Pudgy Toys, which achieved $10 million in sales by February 2024 and has been stocked at Walmart since 2023. The brand commands a following of approximately 2 million Instagram users, with an estimated 90% unaware of its crypto involvement.
