#725 Changing The Name Of The Staples Center To Crypto.Com w/ Steve Kalifowitz

Steve Kalifowitz is the CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) of Crypto.com. In this conversation, we discuss all of Crypto,com's sponsorship deals - including Formula 1, The UFC and their brand new 20 year, $700 million deal, to obtain the naming rights of the iconic Staples Center in Los Angeles. ======================= With 10M+ users, Crypto.com is the easiest place to buy, and sell 100+ cryptocurrencies. The Crypto.com Visa Card gives you up to 8% back instantly, and 100% back on Spotify and Netflix. Also, Crypto.com lets you earn up to 8.5% p.a. on BTC, and 14% p.a. on stablecoins. Get $25 when you download the Crypto.com App with code "pomp". Download the App now: https://crypto.onelink.me/J9Lg/pomppodcast2021 ======================= Matrixport is Asia’s fastest-growing digital asset platform founded by crypto veterans Jihan Wu and John Ge. With $10 billion in assets under management and custody. Matrixport offers one-stop crypto-financial solutions including fixed income, Defi in 1-click, structured products, Cactus Custody™, spot OTC and lending. You can earn a high double-digit yield with the Dual Currency Product or opt for the lucrative potential of our new product, Range Sniper. If you hold crypto and are actively looking to do more with your precious asset, then this app is one you don’t want to miss. Download the Matrixport App and enjoy a welcome offer of 30% APY on Fixed Income for new users. Visit invest.matrixport.com/en today. ======================= MiamiCoin is the first token to be released by CityCoins, a community-driven project built on Bitcoin. CityCoins aims to give people around the world a new way to support their favourite cities. The protocol has already generated over $7 million dollars in donations to the city of Miami and continues to grow every day. If you want to get involved Follow @minecitycoins on Twitter to stay up to date with the project. Visit chat. CityCoins.co to join the community discord and contribute to the movement.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:02Anthony Pompliano?

  What's up everyone, this is Anthony Pompliano. Most of you know me as Pomp. You're listening to the Pomp Podcast, simply the best podcast out there. Now let's kick this thing off. Steve Kalifitz is the CMO, the Chief Marketing Officer at Crypto.com. In this episode, we talk about all of their sponsorship deals, including Formula One, the UFC, Serie A, and their brand new announcement that they are now going to pay $700 million for a 20-year sponsorship of the Staples Center. I really enjoyed this episode, and I hope you do as well. Before we get into the episode, though, I would love to tell you about our sponsors. First up is Crypto.com. They're helping to mainstream the crypto industry, signing major global partnerships with multiple sports, including Serie A, the

• 0:44Anthony Pompliano?

  Italian Football League, the UFC, and my personal favorite, Formula One. With over 10 million users around the world, Crypto.com offers an easy way to buy and sell more than 100 cryptocurrencies. You can even buy Bitcoin with as little as $1. New users enjoy 0% credit and debit card fees in their first 30 days as well. Crypto.com also pays some of the most competitive interest rates in the industry. You can find out how much you can earn by visiting Crypto.com. Crypto.com is also Visa's biggest crypto card partner. My listeners across North America, Europe, and most of APAC can apply for a slick metal card, offering up to 8% back on most purchases, and comes with amazing perks like 100% rebate on your Netflix, Spotify, and Amazon Prime subscriptions. Get 25 bucks when you download the Crypto.com

• 1:26Anthony Pompliano?

  app today using code POMP. Again, $25 when you download the Crypto.com app today using code POMP. Go check them out, Crypto.com. Not only do they have a great URL, that's the place where mass adoption is happening. Next up is Matrixport. Have you lost your way in this low-yield environment while searching for a better store of value to beat inflation? Look no further. Invest with Matrixport to get more from your crypto with the potential for up to very high yields on certain products. Matrixport is Asia's fastest-growing digital asset platform founded by crypto veterans Ji-Han Woo and John G. With $10-plus billion in assets under management and custody, Matrixport offers one-stop crypto financial solutions, including fixed income, DeFi in one-click, structured products, Cactus custody, spot OTC, and lending. You can earn a high double-digit yield with

• 2:10Anthony Pompliano?

  Dual currency product or opt for the lucrative potential of the new product range sniper. If you hold crypto and are actively looking to do more with your precious assets, then this app is one you don't want to miss. Download the matrix port app and enjoy a welcome offer of very high yield on fixed income for new users. You can also go to matrixport.com or download their app. Matrixport.com or go download the app to check out matrix port, Asia's fastest growing digital asset platform. Last but not least are my friends over at city coins. As you may have heard, when we had May Miami mayor Francis Suarez on the show to talk all things Miami, including his excitement for a project that's really caught my attention. Miami coin. This is the first token to be released by city coins, a community driven initiative built on top of Bitcoin.

• 2:53Anthony Pompliano?

  Yes, it is built on top of Bitcoin using stacks and smart contracts. City coins aims to give people around the world a new way to support their favorite cities. In short, the city of Miami was given $7 million and it has now grown to over $20 million and counting by private citizens to improve the city with no strings attached. A city government embracing crypto instead of fighting it was a historic event. You want to get involved, follow them on Twitter at mine city coins or go to citycoins.co to join the community discord and contribute to the movement. Citycoins.co. All right, let's get into this episode. I hope you guys enjoy this one.

• 3:26Speaker 01

  Anthony Pompliano runs pomp investments. All views of him and the guests on his podcast are solely their opinions and do not reflect the opinions of pomp investments. You should not treat any opinion expressed by pomp or his guests as a specific inducement to make a particular investment or follow a particular strategy, but only as an expression of his personal opinion. This podcast is for informational purposes only.

• 3:49Anthony Pompliano?

  All right, I want to talk about a couple of different things. First, let's start with everything else you guys have done in the past, specifically around your marketing strategy and a number of these sponsorship deals that you guys are doing. Maybe we can start with the UFC deal, kind of tell us what that deal exactly is and then. Why is that so attractive to you all?

• 4:06Speaker 02

  Sure. So first of all, it's a 10-year partnership. If you're into UFC, I don't think you can miss us. We're UFC's first fight kit partner. So every fighter that walks into the ring and every fighter who wins puts on the shirt. This logo is right here in the middle. You see us on the mat. Every piece of gear, I think there's like 40 pieces. From hats to sweatpants to the shorts to everything, the sports bras for the women, the singlets. It's just, it's a really all encompassing partnership and one that we recently expanded to include a series of NFTs for the next few years. And it's a space where Endeavor, who owns UFC and UFC specifically, are an incredibly innovative company.

• 4:47Speaker 02

  You know, they started this sport from nothing and have grown it to what continues to be one of the fastest growing sports in the world. So our partnership with them is 10 years long and it's designed to continue to innovate together as we go. So you're going to see really interesting things coming from both of us in the next few months. And one of the most exciting things about it is that it's a truly global sport. It goes all year round and you know, from a TV viewing perspective, you know, we're getting a Super Bowls worth of people watching the events on a monthly basis, if not a bi-weekly basis.

• 5:22Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah, it's absolutely incredible. And I think that to your point about it's not just like, hey, we flash our graphic up on the screen or whatever. There's actually the kits and a bunch of these different things that they hadn't done before. Another one is the F1. We, my brothers and I love Formula One. And when we saw this deal, we were like, wait, that's like, what are they going to do here? And then we watched one of the races and obviously there's all of the signage and all that. But you also have come up with some pretty cool awards, like the Takeover Award and all that. Maybe describe a little bit about the Formula One deal that you guys did.

• 5:52Speaker 02

  Exactly. So Formula One is another one that we're super excited about. Similar to UFC, another extremely global sport goes on about nine months a year. And again, not only is it a very global sport, but we get more than a Super Bowl's worth of audience that shows up for every event. And you know, like you said, we really care about. Being integrated, to be additive to the experience of the viewer and to help our partners really take things forward. And so when we met with Formula One and we put the deal together, you know, we said to them, wait, but overtaking is such an amazing part of every race. It's one of the most exciting parts of every race. And the things that go into overtaking, when you're

• 6:36Speaker 02

  driving several hundred kilometers an hour, having to take over and being behind somebody where the cars today are designed to dump air behind them. So when you're from behind, it's really hard to pass somebody. It takes a lot of strategy and it's actually quite dangerous. It lines up quite nicely with our tagline, Fortune Favors the Brave. And so we came to them and said, hey, we don't just want to put our logos around. We want to really deepen our partnership and get woven into the fabric of the sport and take the sport forward. And so we're bringing a lot of focus to the Overtaker of the Year. So at every race, there's now a new ranking for the Overtaker of the Race. You may have seen last week, Lewis Hamilton, you know, was disqualified in one of the prelims, was all the way in the back and just did an

• 7:18Speaker 02

  incredible job, you know, to get to the front, had to overtake almost everybody. And then at the end of the year, there'll be an award, there'll be a trophy presented to the Overtaker of the Year. So we're super, super excited about it.

• 7:30Anthony Pompliano?

  And when you think about the Aston Martin deal that you guys did, explain this, because this isn't necessarily a sports type deal that people would think about in that, that's nature. What exactly are you guys doing with them?

• 7:43Speaker 02

  So with Aston Martin, that was actually the first deal that we announced. We announced that in early March, you know, it was the first, that we're really excited about. That kicked off, you know, what you're seeing in the whole world from all these crypto companies, right? So that was the first big sports deal that was cut. And for us, it was, it was really putting a stake in the ground. You know, Aston Martin was coming back to Formula One after over 60 years of being away from the sport. You know, as a brand, you know, part of our job with a name like crypto.com, we, we feel like we represent the industry, not just ourselves. And so working in a, in a trustworthy and regulated manner in building Building our business is core to who we are.

• 8:26Speaker 02

  And when we look at our partnerships, we look for partners who can extend that. And you know, when the opportunity came up with Aston Martin, who was again coming back into Formula One, we saw an opportunity to work with a with a brand that was refreshing itself. Um, but that has a strong heritage and and really bring that to life. And I think that really kicked off a lot of things that made everybody uh, look at us in the industry a bit differently. I remember when CNBC met with the CEO, when he was on TV talking about, you know, when they unveiled the car and that's when they showed everybody that that our logo is nice and big right on the side of the car. Um, the second question was, you're working with a crypto company and this was back in March, which feels like years ago. Um, but uh, but yeah, that that was really uh, uh, it was a milestone.

• 9:12Anthony Pompliano?

  Talk to me about the Matt Damon commercial. I think when people saw it, they were like, whoa, this is a whole different ballgame in terms of uh, production quality, et cetera. And and part of what I why I wanted to talk to you is uh, I I think that you generally uh, appreciate the craft of marketing. But like, there's a skill set to figuring this stuff out. It's not just the ideas, but the execution. And I think people could really see in that commercial uh, that that was a whole different level of uh, of craftsmanship, if you will, or thought that goes into it. So what was the idea there and why Matt Damon versus uh, me or uh, my brothers or anybody else that you could have picked?

• 9:48Speaker 02

  Oh, we're coming up with other ones, so we wanted to leave space for others. Um, now, you know, Matt Damon, there there aren't many people like him. And you know, as as core to who we are as a company, we've been around uh, and we've said since day one that we're here to accelerate the world's transition to cryptocurrency. But we we do need, we as an industry and everyone in crypto needs to recognize that a lot of what we do to sort of build up the industry and and and support the people in it is sometimes exclusive and and pushes others away. You know, when when crypto people call themselves Dejans and they call people who are not into crypto normies, um, you know, that that's not very attractive uh, to to uh, mainstream the industry.

• 10:32Speaker 02

  And so uh, me as a CMO, I've been focusing A lot on how do we mainstream the industry? How do we invite people in? How do we start a conversation? So when you see us woven into UFC, not just another logo in the octagon, but right here on the shirt. When you see us as one of seven global partners with Formula One, you know, in showing up in a big way in the word crypto, not just our name crypto.com, but the word crypto is featured really prominently in a Formula One race. Now, with what we announced last night, with the crypto.com arena, you know, where the Grammys will be broadcast live around the world from the crypto.com arena.

• 11:14Speaker 02

  The Emmys will be broadcast live from the crypto.com arena. You know, Lakers, Kings, Clippers, and all the concerts, they're all going to be at the crypto.com arena. It really puts crypto into the zeitgeist. It makes people start to talk about it and think about it. And so when we thought about our first brand campaign and introducing who we are and what we're about, there's really no one like Matt Damon. There's no one who is as globally well-known as him. And we wanted to make a spot that both spoke to the crypto world in a way where anyone who's into crypto would get all the signals. And people who are not into crypto would see something for themselves as well. And so even when you look at the ending and that, you know, Matt, who's this shaman-type character,

• 11:58Speaker 02

  who's telling you unraveling this truth, which is fortune favors the brave, a line that was created by the Romans thousands of years ago and has lasted the test of time. You know, he reveals at the end that he's also one of the brave ones. He's not just a storyteller. Now, for people who aren't into crypto, they might get the idea that he's going back to Mars, right? He won an Oscar for being the Martian. People who are into crypto understand the Mars reference. And we littered the spot with Easter eggs, which people on Twitter in the last few days have started to find, which I invite everybody to go check it out and check the spot out on YouTube and find them. There's actually a really special Easter egg that As a prize if you can find it.

• 12:37Anthony Pompliano?

  Talk to me about the Staples Center. $700 million is a lot of money. 20 years is pretty standard for these types of deals. One, why that specific location before we get to any of the other details?

• 12:51Speaker 02

  There's few venues on earth that have as many events flowing through them and that are as globally recognized as this one and which can be renamed, right? Like, no one's gonna, you know, you could try to rename Fenway Park or MSG, but, you know, no one's gonna call it anything but Fenway Park or MSG. You know, the Staples Center, you know, Staples is a business has gone the way they've gone. And, you know, the opportunity to rename it and really bring this location, this iconic place and this incredible city, Los Angeles, into the future is something that we jumped on as soon as we could.

• 13:29Anthony Pompliano?

  And when you start talking to these folks, is this a thing where you're like, you like, call them up? And you're just like, hey, by the way, we'd like to spend hundreds of millions of dollars with you. Do they call you? Like, walk me through, like, how does this happen? I don't think anyone understands how naming rights occur. Regardless if it was this deal or another, like, what is the process in doing this?

• 13:45Speaker 02

  So, in certain cases, we call people and others, they call us. You know, we've now developed a pretty strong reputation in the market for being great partners. And that's really our focus here. I don't look at any of, any of what we've done as sponsorships. I look at all of it and I refer to all of it as partnerships. Because we're gonna be in it with these people for a long time. And like I said, in regard to UFC or even F1 and, you know, many others that we've already announced.

• 14:12Speaker 02

  It's a genuine partnership. We're working together. Our industry, you know, every month it evolves. And so, we need to have partners who we can work with closely to innovate in terms of how we engage with our fans. We know crypto is going to seep into every part of our lives. And so, we want to be there and work with great partners to bring it to the forefront and connect with people who are passionate about it. And so, to your point on how these deals happen, again, sometimes we get calls, sometimes we do outbound calling. In this one, you know, we were brought together. There was interest in both sides. And they were interested in talking to us. We were interested in talking to them. And, you know, enough of the market knows, it's a small market at the end of the day in terms of people who work on these kind of deals.

• 14:52Anthony Pompliano?

  Who shoots first? Do you guys throw out a number or they do?

• 15:00Speaker 02

  Usually, usually we let people.

• 15:04Anthony Pompliano?

  And then when they throw a number out, is this like a negotiation or is this a take it or leave it type situation in these negotiations?

• 15:11Speaker 02

  Again, it's not a fire sale. This isn't like buying a house where you have agents in between and they, I mean, some people use agents. We tend to work direct on all of our deals because it's about developing a relationship. Again, it's all about the relationship and the partnership begins during the negotiation. And if the negotiation goes well, and if it's amicable, then we know we have a partner that, you know, when things get tough, we'll be able to rely on to work together. If the negotiation starts off bad, then it's usually something we walk away from.

• 15:41Anthony Pompliano?

  Okay. And then, once you start to think about the number, whatever that number ends up being, we were looking earlier, SoFi paid like 620, 630 million dollars for their deal of SoFi Stadium. The, this deal is 700 million. Do you just like stroke up a 700 million dollar check upfront? Do you pay on an annual basis? Do they invoice you? Like, how do you, how do you get the money out of your account into their account? And like, what is the periodic payments and stuff look like?

• 16:12Speaker 02

  So, in terms of the contract and those kinds of things, they tend to be confidential.

• 16:16Anthony Pompliano?

  All right. That's fine. I'm assuming you're not striking a 700 million dollar check upfront. If you are, then you guys are, are killing it. My brother's looking at it. My brother's like, damn, okay. 700 million dollars upfront. No, no, no. I don't think that's how it works.

• 16:32Speaker 02

  From your earlier conversation, I don't think we operate like the government.

• 16:36Anthony Pompliano?

  Don't worry, there'd be money left over if you did that. You write the check and then they give it back. Some back, yeah. All right. And then the only other question I have for you is, when you think about paying for these types of things, is there a conversation around them taking Bitcoin or cryptocurrencies or any of that as part of the payment? Or for the, we know teams have become interested in this. We know players have become interested in this. What about the venues themselves? Is that part of the conversation? Do you think that you guys have any influence in terms of them accepting it inside of the stadium? Like, talk to me about the integrations or the payments with like the actual Bitcoin or cryptocurrency. To currencies rather than just cash.

• 17:13Speaker 02

  Sure. So, you know, we have an awesome product called crypto.com pay that's used by thousands of vendors all around the world to accept crypto. In fact, when Time Magazine launched their ability to accept crypto for all of their products, they use crypto.com pay. Using crypto.com pay and accepting crypto for payments and letting users engage with the teams, the teams, the venues, the leagues, is definitely something that everybody is interested. Everybody knows it's the future. It's inevitable. And I'm not quoting Elon Musk when I say that. It is inevitable. And that's part of what a lot of people are leaning in. They want to learn more. They want to work with a trusted partner like us to help guide them on that path.

• 17:57Anthony Pompliano?

  Joe, John, what questions you guys got? Hey, Steve, how's it going?

• 18:00Speaker 02

  Good. Good to be here.

• 18:01Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah, nice to see you. So I got two questions. My first would be, so you guys paid a reported $700 million for the deal over 20 years. Your token, CRO token, went up, gained about $2 billion or more market cap this morning. Is that ever part of the conversation with you guys of like, hey, this will impact our token value? Obviously, you're looking for, you know, app downloads and all these things also. But was the token ever part of that conversation with you guys?

• 18:25Speaker 02

  No, we're extremely long-term focused. We don't really look at near-term fluctuations.

• 18:30Anthony Pompliano?

  Gotcha. Yeah. And then secondly is like just around what you do after these deals are done, right? Like, what metrics are you guys going to be looking at? How will you track success of a partnership like this?

• 18:39Speaker 02

  So number one is we look to how the fans and the communities that we engage with respond. You know, that's number one. And it's a massive responsibility for us to make sure that, you know, crypto is still a new thing. A lot of people don't understand it, as you guys well know. And you guys are doing great work in terms of educating people and helping them understand what it is. So number one is making sure that the fans and the communities that we engage with, you know, really accept it well. That's probably the biggest bar because if we can engage with them and if we can show them that, you know, we're not just a logo in the background, but that we're an active participant and that we care about this sport or we care about the community. You know, from there, everything goes up. But certainly, you know, we want to see our business grow.

• 19:24Speaker 02

  We want to see chatter about crypto growing, you know, really the industry at large. We want a mainstream crypto. We want crypto in every wallet. And that'll be what we'll track him.

• 19:33Anthony Pompliano?

  John, what questions you got?

• 19:35Speaker 03

  Yeah, Steve, nice to meet you, virtually, obviously. But what, what are you guys going after? I mean, I've seen crypto companies and crypto.com in specific go after athletes, go after venues, arenas, go after teams in specific. Like, so what do you guys focus on, on that note, like, moving forward?

• 19:51Speaker 02

  So number, number one is we focus on great partners, right? Great partners with passionate communities around them, right? These are brands that we're, that we're collaborating with, right? So, you know, in the case of the NBA, we worked with the Sixers and they're just an incredible team. And I was, I was in Philly, you know, at one of the games last week, and I have never been more excited watching a game. The fans are insanely passionate and, you know, the, the ability to partner with a brand like that and to connect with those fans is incredible. Same thing with UFC. I mean, you know, I, I used to be a TV producer at HBO. I was, I was there in the early 2000s and I produced live boxing there.

• 20:35Speaker 02

  And, you know, at the time, people looked down on UFC. You go to a UFC fight today, I mean, they're all sold out. The passion of the fans, you know, the number of pay-per-views that happen is just insane. And so we really focus on how to connect with those fans around their passion points and enhance their experience.

• 20:55Anthony Pompliano?

  Steve, what's next? Is there anything that you guys are eyeing up or, or trying to kind of focus on going into 2022?

• 21:05Speaker 02

  You know, we're gonna, it's, it's continuing to mainstream crypto. It's, it's bringing it to more and more places, making, raising awareness that crypto is here, you know? I mean, the, the big message from all of these partnerships is that we're here. You know, again, we're not just we, crypto.com, but our industry and, and make sure that everybody knows it's not going anywhere.

• 21:23Anthony Pompliano?

  All right. I appreciate you coming on. Where can we send people to, to find you on the internet?

• 21:28Speaker 02

  Twitter is usually the best place. You tag me in the post about this show.

• 21:32Anthony Pompliano?

  At S. Kalifouz. It's the best place to reach me. Exactly. There's a lot of people who come on here, a lot of people who built big businesses, who have done a lot of cool stuff. I don't think we've had anyone come on here the day they announced that they're spending $700 million though on something. So I appreciate you taking some time out of your day coming on and explaining the thought process behind it. And you got a lot of fans, by the way, in LA that you guys got to get on board because I saw them all. They were all like, hey, it's iconic. This is they're freaking out. And I was like, yeah, real quick, it'll change, though. They'll start calling it Crypto.com Arena before they even realize it. That's right. Is LeBron? Are you like, can we get LeBron to do anything? Can you hook me up with LeBron to get him to come on? I'll see if I can make some phone calls.

• 22:17Anthony Pompliano?

  I appreciate the enthusiasm and positivity. All right. Thanks so much, man. Appreciate it. You got it. Take care, guys. Thanks so much.