Shopify has helped launch over 1,000,000 independent businesses’ websites. But, despite their impressive track record, no one in the U.S. had ever heard of them…

And that was somewhat intentional. Because Shopify exists only to help and support independent businesses. So instead of promoting themselves, they focused all their efforts on the businesses on their platform and how best to serve them; even going so far as to not put a Shopify logo on Shopify-powered websites.

Now, we were challenged with creating the first-ever national advertising campaign to tell the world about Shopify, while staying true to what the brand stands for: putting independent businesses first.

We turned our advertising into even more ways Shopify supports independent businesses.

And we called it, “Supporting Independents.” A campaign where every touchpoint would be a new way Shopify supports the independent businesses on their platform.

From OOH posters that acted as storefronts, to a shoppable film that featured “product placement” from hundreds of independent businesses, to our Instagram feed that became one continuous product display shelf, to hijacking our competitor’s Super Bowl ad to highlight independent businesses instead, we transformed all of our media into new ways to support the independent businesses on Shopify.

We needed to show current and potential independent business owners that Shopify is a true partner and here to support them and their business. We needed to tell the world about Shopify, while staying true to what the brand stands for: putting independent businesses before themselves.

Everything in our films was from an independent business on Shopify - all the furniture and decor, hair and makeup products, wardrobe, even the wallpaper, light fixtures and light bulbs, it was all from an independent business on Shopify. We revealed this to viewers by tagging all the items in the ads with the business name, and then made the entire film shoppable online where people could click on any item in the scenes to shop.

We extended our shoppable campaign to OOH with a series of shoppable posters, and onto social media where we transformed our Instagram feed into one big display shelf for independent businesses’ products.

We even turned our competitor’s Super Bowl ad into a way to support independent businesses, with a social response that leveraged the conversation Squarespace started around Winona, Minnesota, to promote 44 independent businesses in the town of Winona that are on Shopify.

We introduced the world to Shopify and increased brand awareness from >2% to 10%.

We gave exposure to more than 300+ small businesses.

Shopify stock has risen almost 400% (from ~$350 to ~$1350 a share) from the moment we launched our campaign until now.