How Pudgy Penguins Landed the Las Vegas Sphere—After Dogwifhat Couldn't

Pudgy Penguins will wrap the Las Vegas Sphere for Christmas after debuting on the glowing venue on Tuesday.

The crypto-native brand's recent announcement sent some traders into a meltdown, as the community behind Solana meme coin Dogwifhat (WIF) failed to advertise on the venue earlier this year despite raising $700,000 in an attempt to do so—funds the team later refunded to contributors.

A Sphere spokesperson previously told Decrypt that it would only accept crypto advertising from exchanges or in relation to Bitcoin. Despite this, the Dogwifhat backers announced in January that they were set to appear at the Las Vegas venue.

For that reason, a Sphere representative told Decrypt that they were “distressed” that the Dogwifhat team was using their name for “fraudulent purposes.”

So, how can Pudgy Penguins—a brand that started as an NFT profile picture collection, has created a Solana meme coin called PENGU, helped launch an Ethereum layer-2 network, and more—advertise on the Sphere?

“This activation celebrates specifically our physical products, like toys, animations, and merch. It has nothing to do with the crypto side of our business,” Vedant Mangaldas, director of strategy and comms at Pudgy Penguins, told Decrypt. “We fully realize Sphere’s guidelines on crypto-related things.”

Prior to Tuesday's rollout, a Sphere spokesperson confirmed to Decrypt that Pudgy Penguins would wrap the Sphere, and that its crypto policy has not changed, as this activation specifically relates to physical products.

This means that during the seven-day wrap, the Pudgy Penguins NFTs, the Pengu meme coin, or any other crypto-related ventures will not be mentioned on the Sphere. Instead, the exosphere animation focuses on the cartoon creatures that drive the brand, and briefly mentions the availability of merchandise.

Pudgy Penguins ventured into the world of physical products in 2023 and started being stocked in Walmart. As of February 2024, the Pudgy Toys line had racked up $10 million in sales, less than a year after the collection debuted. The brand has seen similar success with its social media content and library of GIFs, which have seen considerable reach without obvious crypto connections.

“We have 2 million followers on Instagram, and, you know, I would say 90% of them probably don't know that crypto exists. It celebrates that side of the spectrum,” Mangaldas explained. “When you get a billion views on GIFs, I would assume that a majority of them don't know that we're a crypto company. And I think that's the beauty of Pudgy Penguins.”

Still, it wasn’t an easy path to wrapping the Sphere, despite a joking jab on social media at Dogwifhat Sphere organizer Ansem that it only took three minutes to set up.

Instead, a source familiar with the deal told Decrypt that conversations with the Sphere started in early 2024. Those discussions started to get serious this year as the Pudgy Penguins brand established itself more outside of crypto.

It then took months for animators to craft the content, which is now plastered on the exosphere of the towering venue and seen far and wide from around Las Vegas. A source familiar with the activation told Decrypt that Pudgy Penguins is hoping to produce a hugely viral moment from an animation that lasts just a minute.

Pudgy Penguins is expected to have paid up to $600,000 to wrap the Sphere for seven days, a source familiar with the matter told Decrypt. As cartoon penguins decorate the outside of the Sphere, the inside of the venue is hosting screenings of “The Wizard of Oz.”

Editor's note: This story was updated after publication to correct Mangaldas' title.