Mama Jess organic pasta sauce creator and Barrington mom, Jessica Grelle, is one step closer to winning the ultimate prize for s small business, a 30 second commercial during the 2014 Super Bowl in the Intuit Small Business Big Game contest. Jessica has advanced to next level of the contest and is now one only 20 semi-finalists who remain out of 15,000 small businesses who entered the contest!
To advance past round two, Jessica had a short window of time last month to create a 90 second video about her business. In about a week, she and her creative team developed a concept, filmed and edited “The Good Story of Mama Jess” about how she came up with the idea of packing healthy and organic vegetables into sauces that her kids love to eat. Jessica says they decided to have her 10 year old son and 4th grader Alex Grelle tell the story as the video’s narrator.
“He is telling the story of Mama Jess through his eyes and, instead of showing him on the camera, we do it in drawings. Someone is sketching in chalk so you can see how I got my start in pictures.” (If you can’t see video, CLICK HERE for direct link on YouTube.)
In addition to Mama Jess, the range of semifinalists include a company that makes all-natural dog treats, a women’s fitness program in Chicago, a natural dairy composting operation in Southwest Idaho and a business named Dream Beard that makes a product to stimulate the growth of men’s facial hair. (For the full list, CLICK HERE.)
Jessica says winning this contest would be a major breakthrough for Mama Jess organic pasta sauces. “For a small business with a small budget for any type of marketing or PR it’s huge. We know we have a great product and we know it helps people because it’s so healthy but we just need to get the word out to more people in America that Mama Jess pasta sauces are available for people to purchase nationwide.”
Public voting played a part in helping Jessica advance past round two but for the semi-final round, this week 8,000 Intuit employees are going to vote and narrow the top twenty down to four remaining contestants. They’ll announce the top four next week on November 11th, opening the voting back up to the public for the final say. The big winner will be announced on December 3rd and that 30 second Big Game commercial will air sometime during the Super Bowl on Sunday, February 2nd!
So stay tuned to MamaJess.com and right here at 365Barrington.com to find out whether Jessica makes it to the top 4! Our fingers are crossed this week and we will, of course, be voting for Barrington’s Jessica Grelle to hopefully see Mama Jess take the spotlight on Super Bowl Sunday!
To learn something new every day about people, places and things to do in Barrington, visit us again for tomorrow’s NoonDaily Update at 12 p.m., right here at 365Barrington.com.
