Fielding a Super Bowl champ in ad game

A small-business star will be born during a commercial break at Super Bowl XLVIII.

A company yet to be selected will have its own 30-second ad during the game, giving it the kind of exposure usually reserved for mega-brands like Budweiser and Chevrolet.

The spot will be the culmination of a competition sponsored by the software maker Intuit Inc., which has never run a Super Bowl commercial of its own but is paying for one small business to be in the spotlight during the third quarter of the big game.

"This is the sort of thing that small businesses dream about," said Tim Calkins, a professor of marketing at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management. "It's impossible to match the attention you get from being in the Super Bowl."

There's also some risk. Small businesses often don't have the capacity to handle the kind of exposure that the winner is bound to get. The company will need to be prepared to handle the sudden surge in business it might get from the ad.

Intuit, which makes software for small businesses, says that ability will be one of the criteria that companies must meet to make it to the final stages of the competition.

The Super Bowl draws more than 100 million U.S. viewers. Super Bowl commercials are a "Can you top that?" showcase for advertising agencies, which try to come up with the funniest and most memorable ads.

"The advertising is entertainment in and of itself," said Sheri Bridges, associate professor of marketing at Wake Forest University's School of Business.

The small-business spot will be created by RPA, an advertising agency that has produced past Super Bowl commercials, including an Acura ad starring Jerry Seinfeld and a Honda spot with Matthew Broderick for the 2012 game.

"We're going to be doing something more rooted in the business and who they are, rather than just catching eyeballs," said Adam Lowery, a creative director at RPA.

In the first round, companies sign up at www.SmallBusinessBigGame.com and tell their stories. The public votes on who advances to the next round. The 50,000 companies with the most votes then continue telling their stories, with Intuit employees voting for the 20 best. Four of those will become finalists chosen by Intuit employees. The public will then choose the winning company.

But success isn't guaranteed. Super Bowl ads have to be memorable.

"If they're not," said Bridges, "you're like the girl who wears the ugly dress to the prom."