Blockchain.com enlisted William Shatner and agency Oberland for a 2019 US film campaign introducing The PIT cryptocurrency exchange with comic narrative flair.
ARCHIVEBlockchain.com Bets on William Shatner to Launch The PIT Exchange
Blockchain.com launched "Introducing the PIT with William Shatner" as a Adsoftheworld.clapboard.com/blog/producing/development/short-film-complete-guide">film campaign in the United States in August 2019, enlisting the iconic actor to introduce The PIT cryptocurrency exchange through a comedic narrative designed to lower the psychological barriers surrounding digital asset trading, according to Thewildfactory.
The campaign centres on a single approximately 60-second film in which William Shatner plays a bungling bank robber whose immediately recognisable voice defeats his own disguise. The comic premise carries a pointed tagline — "Don't Get Held Up. Level Up in The PIT" — which pivots from the robbery scenario to Blockchain.com's core proposition: that traditional finance is slow, opaque, and constraining, while The PIT offers a faster, more transparent alternative for cryptocurrency traders. The film was the sole media asset in the campaign, concentrating creative impact into one tightly produced narrative piece, according to Musebyclios.
The timing of the campaign was deliberate. Blockchain.com had announced The PIT cryptocurrency exchange on July 2, 2019, according to campaign documentation reported by Muse by Clio, and the advertising followed in August 2019 to drive awareness of the new product across the United States. The campaign represented a strategic pivot for Blockchain.com, which had built its reputation primarily as a wallet provider and was now positioning itself as a full-service cryptocurrency trading platform. By choosing William Shatner — a figure whose cultural authority spans decades of American popular culture — and partnering with New York agency Oberland, Blockchain.com signalled an ambition to reach beyond existing crypto enthusiasts and speak to a broader, more sceptical US audience. The Clapboard Score for this campaign is 63 out of 100, reflecting solid creative concept and cultural casting offset by limited measurable reach data.
Blockchain.com identified a specific tension in the United States cryptocurrency market in 2019: awareness of digital assets was rising, but conversion into active trading remained constrained by consumer anxiety about complexity and trustworthiness.
Haider Rafique, Head of Growth at Blockchain.com, articulated this moment directly. As reported by Muse by Clio on August 19, 2019, Rafique stated: "After years of turbulence and hype, euphoria and disillusionment, we're at a stage where real-world applications of cryptocurrencies are having tangible impacts around the world." The campaign was built on this inflection point — the belief that 2019 represented a maturation moment for crypto in the United States, when credible, accessible communication could convert curious observers into active users of platforms like The PIT.
The competitive context in the United States exchange market in 2019 was intensely contested. Coinbase had established itself as the dominant consumer-facing cryptocurrency exchange across the US market, while Binance was aggressively expanding its global footprint. Blockchain.com's decision to lead with celebrity narrative rather than feature-led product advertising was a deliberate differentiation strategy. Where competitors leaned on trust signals rooted in regulatory compliance and liquidity metrics, Blockchain.com chose emotional accessibility — using the comedic authority of William Shatner to reframe the brand as approachable rather than technically intimidating. According to CryptoCompare's exchange benchmarking reports from the period, liquidity and user experience were the two dominant factors driving US trader preference among exchanges, reinforcing why Blockchain.com needed a creative strategy that addressed perception before product specification. The Oberland-led campaign answered that brief by making the brand feel human and legible at a moment when the category still struggled with opacity.
Wild Factory directed "Introducing the PIT with William Shatner," with Will Thompson serving as director on the production, as documented in Wild Factory's own case study materials.
The creative execution is built on a single, self-contained comic premise. William Shatner enters a bank in disguise, intent on a robbery, but his unmistakably distinctive voice — the cadenced, deliberate delivery that has made him one of the most parodied voices in American pop culture — renders his disguise immediately useless. The film uses this inherent absurdity as its mechanism for holding audience attention, before pivoting the narrative logic toward The PIT: if conventional banking is this chaotic and frustrating, there is a better way to manage your financial future. Bill Oberlander, founder and creative chief of Oberland, was cited by Muse by Clio as observing that Shatner's recognisable voice made the bank robber's supposed secrecy intrinsically comic — the joke was structural, not imposed.
The film was characterised by Muse by Clio as "extremely silly," a description that functions as endorsement within the context of the campaign's strategic intent. Silliness, deployed with precision, reduces threat perception — exactly the psychological shift Blockchain.com needed to achieve with US audiences who associated cryptocurrency with either speculative risk or impenetrable technical complexity. More About Advertising published coverage of the campaign on August 19, 2019, under the headline "Bank robber Bill plugs The Pit for Blockchain.com," reflecting a tone of mild amusement that nonetheless confirmed the premise had registered clearly in the trade press. The choice of a single film asset concentrated all creative energy into one memorable, shareable narrative rather than dispersing it across a multi-format campaign, a structural decision consistent with Oberland's reputation for conceptually led work.
ARCHIVENo independently verified performance data for the "Introducing the PIT with William Shatner" campaign — including view counts, conversion metrics, or brand lift figures — is publicly available from Blockchain.com, Oberland, or Wild Factory at the time of publication.
What the public record does confirm is consistent trade press coverage across multiple outlets on August 19, 2019, with Muse by Clio, More About Advertising, and Ads of the World all reporting on the campaign simultaneously. This coordinated coverage reflects an effective earned media strategy that extended the campaign's reach beyond paid placement. The film's premise — Shatner as a failed bank robber — generated a sufficiently clear and retellable narrative hook that journalists summarised and amplified it without requiring extended explanation, a reliable indicator of creative clarity.
Structurally, the campaign's greatest strength lies in its casting economy. William Shatner delivers both the comic premise and the cultural credibility signal within a single performance, eliminating the need for additional creative infrastructure to establish trust. The Clapboard Score of 63 out of 100 reflects this dynamic: the concept is coherent and the execution is competent, but the campaign's impact is constrained by its single-asset format and the absence of a documented media amplification strategy sufficient to sustain awareness of The PIT beyond the launch window. For a brand attempting to reposition itself from wallet provider to full-service exchange in a crowded United States market, a single film — however well-crafted — represents a conservative creative investment relative to the scale of the competitive challenge.
Blockchain.com's "Introducing the PIT with William Shatner" is a 2019 US film campaign created by agency Oberland to launch The PIT cryptocurrency exchange. The approximately 60-second spot features Shatner as a bungling bank robber whose recognisable voice defeats his disguise, using comedy to position The PIT as a smarter alternative to traditional finance.
Blockchain.com chose William Shatner because his instantly recognisable voice was central to the campaign's comic premise. Bill Oberlander of Oberland noted that Shatner's distinctive delivery made the bank robber's disguise inherently absurd. The casting also gave Blockchain.com cultural credibility with a broad US audience beyond existing cryptocurrency enthusiasts.
The campaign was created by New York agency Oberland for Blockchain.com and produced by Wild Factory, with Will Thompson directing, as documented in Wild Factory's case study materials. It was published in the United States in August 2019 to support the launch of The PIT cryptocurrency exchange, announced on July 2, 2019.
The PIT is a cryptocurrency exchange launched by Blockchain.com. It was announced on July 2, 2019, according to campaign documentation reported by Muse by Clio. The PIT represented Blockchain.com's strategic expansion beyond its established wallet product into active trading, targeting US cryptocurrency investors seeking a faster and more transparent exchange platform.
The Blockchain.com "Introducing the PIT with William Shatner" campaign received a Clapboard Score of 63 out of 100. The score reflects a coherent creative concept and effective celebrity casting, offset by the campaign's single-asset format and the absence of publicly documented performance metrics confirming the reach of The PIT's US launch advertising.
Trade press response to the Blockchain.com PIT campaign was broadly positive on entertainment value. Muse by Clio described the spot as "extremely silly" and highlighted the bank-robbery premise as its central hook. More About Advertising covered it under the headline "Bank robber Bill plugs The Pit for Blockchain.com," reflecting recognition of the premise with mild amusement.
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