Small is a Big Deal

Small businesses make up the majority of FreshBooks’ customers, yet the moments that matter most to them can often feel overlooked. Small Is a Big Deal was created to celebrate the everyday wins that keep small businesses moving forward—and show how those wins can be a big deal to the people behind them. The campaign featured five FreshBooks customers across the U.S., spanning photography, wildlife management, architecture, catering, and web design. Rather than portraying generic entrepreneurial success, the creative focused on the people behind these businesses and the personal significance of their milestones. The goal was to create an emotional connection with audiences while demonstrating how FreshBooks helps make those wins possible by making running a business easier.

I owned the creative direction from concept through execution, developing the campaign's visual identity, photography and video direction, and overall shoot approach. The photography was designed to celebrate each business owner in their environment, showcasing their profession while portraying them with a sense of pride and accomplishment. I directed the creative remotely throughout the shoots, working closely with the agency, local creators, and customers to maintain a consistent visual language across five very different businesses while allowing each person's story and personality to come through authentically. I also led post-production feedback and directed and executed the creative across the campaign ecosystem.

The final campaign extended across paid advertising, organic social, and web, including static and animated ads, 6-, 15-, and 30-second paid video, Customer Win, Rapid Fire and Behind the Scenes social video content and polished Customer Story videos.

The Challenge: How do we create a high-impact, multi-format brand campaign with a limited production budget? The initial production plan would have resulted in a limited number of deliverables at a significant cost, without video. I helped rethink the production, bringing more of the creative process in-house and executing it myself as well as partnering with a smaller agency and local creators to execute the customer shoots. This allowed us to receive substantially more photography and video content while making the budget work harder.