Four Startups That Got Super Bowl Results on Startup Budgets

The Super Bowl is a great place to get in front of people and drive awareness - if you have $10M to spend.

But early-stage startups don't overly have $10k; here are some startups that got Super Bowl results for startup budgets.

Purple Mattress created a YouTube video with a little supporting media comparing their mattress to competitors by dropping eggs on their mattresses—a tried and true strategy.

All in Cost: $15K

Outcome: 200M views + $75M in revenue

Squatty Potty created an ad for YouTube and threw everything. Viral trended into it and leaned heavily into their brand line, "The stool for better stools." They made the decision to break every rule in the book because they knew "our brand was the last thing people wanted to think about - we needed to create a reason to make them pay attention."

All in Cost: $250K

Outcome: 600% increase in sales in one month and a massive halo effect.

Dollar Shave Club launched with an ad called Our Blades are F*ing Great. A YouTube video that was everything a razor ad isn't: low budget, no frills, no BS. They were the anti-overmans brand. I have a warm spot in my heart working on this strategy.

All in Cost: $7K 

Results:

- 26M views

- 300k+ Subscriptions 

- Define a brand that was acquired for $1B with 0 product feature differentiation.

The winner for scrappy low-budget tactics is ...... Shopify

Shopify launched a $100K Build a Business Competition while still a bootstrapped business.

All in Cost: the $100k price

Results: 1,350 new businesses + $3.5M in gross sales + Priceless PR

Big brands need big budgets. 

Founders need a defined brand to know their audience and an innovative team. 

You don't need millions of dollars to get millions of views. 

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