Gusto bets on “Dream Small” to praise owners who keep their businesses small
Gusto’s “Dream Small” campaign, made with Special Group USA and directed by Nick Ball, went live Oct. 27 on US TV, streaming and city screens.
Source: Los Angeles Times
Owning one shop, not an empire, is the ambition at the heart of “Dream Small,” the new brand campaign that Gusto, a partner to small businesses, put on air in the United States on Tuesday, October 27. Special Group USA worked with the company to create it.
The campaign pushes back against the belief that success is measured by size. Its heroes are entrepreneurs who prize their independence, set their own rules and build real relationships with staff and clients. The core idea: a business shaped by your personal definition of success is anything but small.
Small firms by the numbers
Gusto’s push lands at a time when Americans are filing record numbers of applications for new small businesses. Two in three millennials and Gen Z members, 66%, have given serious thought to launching a company of their own.
Small companies represent 99.9% of businesses in the US and account for 43.5% of GDP.
A dry cleaner named Tony
Nick Ball directed the films, while Hoyte van Hoytema served as cinematographer. The pair opted for a character-based treatment that borrows from cinema and television.
In the hero film, “The New Big Dream,” a man named Tony chases a goal he has held since childhood: a single dry-cleaning shop. Relatives and others keep steering him toward a traditional career in the corporate world. The film presents success as a matter of personal ambition and the reward of owning what you created.
Shorter spots use ordinary moments in small companies to illustrate what Gusto’s services do for owners and employees. A massage therapist is paid reliably; a man who runs a septic-service firm organises health coverage for his workers; a medical aesthetics practitioner opens a clinic of her own; an office manager arranges retirement plans for colleagues. New stories will keep arriving until early 2027.
Live sports and city screens
Viewers will catch the ads during live sports broadcasts on CBS, FOX, The CW, Netflix and Amazon Prime Video until Thanksgiving week. The plan also covers online video, social media and audio, along with work by influencers and digital billboards.
In New York, the outdoor ads will appear at Penn Station, on LinkNYC kiosks and on transit shelters in Manhattan. Downtown Chicago is also part of the outdoor rollout.