The Super Bowl is about economics. Yet, small businesses (over 29 million in the U.S.) are completely excluded. Intuit QuickBooks, maker of small business accounting software, set out to correct that injustice.

Super Bowl ads are pricey, and they come with about two weeks of buzz. That wasn’t enough. So we bought a spot on the Big Game, but instead of running an ad for QuickBooks, we did the unthinkable and gave away our Super Bowl ad to a small business.

Intuit QuickBooks Small Business Big Game started accepting entries from small businesses in June. The program existed entirely online until the 3rd quarter of the Super Bowl.

The winning business, Death Wish Coffee, saw their ad run in Super Bowl 50, 9 months after the program launched. Proving QuickBooks loves small businesses, and that to get the most out of a Super Bowl ad, you need to

QuickBooks Small Business Big Game launched in the summer of 2015. Any business with 50 or fewer employees could enter for a shot at their very own Super Bowl commercial – courtesy of QuickBooks.

Over 17,000 small businesses entered and began stumping for votes. The vote tally determined the winner of the Super Bowl commercial. Death Wish Coffee Company pulled out a narrow victory, and QuickBooks paid to produce and run an ad of their choosing on Super Bowl 50.

Every business that entered also became a member of QuickBooks’ new online small business community – the OWN IT Network. To demonstrate the value of the community and keep businesses engaged, we created bi-weekly small business activities. Each activity was designed to educate small businesses on different, relevant topics. Participation was never required, but it earned the business a chance at a $500 cash prize.

Awareness results:

6.736 billion earned impressions

463MM social impressions

2,219 news articles about the program

Program involvement:

2.31 million unique site visits

17,640 businesses entered Small Business Big Game

30,757 OWN IT small business network sign-ups

Death Wish Coffee Co. (winning business):

550% sales increase post-Super Bowl

By mid-Feb., reached 50% of previous year’s total revenue

#1 selling grocery product on Amazon.com

Interest from several national retailers has more than doubled since start of campaign