Intuit’s latest spot is focused on both spotlighting and helping “early start” businesses succeed. It’s a tough time for many small businesses, but despite struggles, according to November QuickBooks survey insights, some 17 million small businesses are projected to start in the U.S. and Canada in 2022.

The new campaign from the accounting software company shows young entrepreneurs engaging in tropes that have become common in ads featuring small businesses, like dramatically staring out of office windows, gesturing around a store space or sketching up new design plans. But behind the brave faces, voiceovers reveal that the cliches are masking anxiety over a lack of financial knowledge and confidence.

Puja Subrun, head of marketing for Intuit QuickBooks Canada, tells strategy the campaign is a multi-channel, integrated effort focused on the duality of small business ownership that many experience when pursuing a passion – they have trust in their abilities when it comes to designing furniture or clothes, but lack the acumen to be confident as they turn them into full-time businesses.

According to Subrun, a lot of businesses early on in their journey either don’t think they’re big enough to need accounting software, or don’t realize they need financial management tools to run their business in the first place. “We want to normalize the inner dialogue of new business owners – it’s okay not to know everything, and leaning on a partner like QuickBooks can relieve some of the burden and stress that comes with running a business,” she says.

Last January’s Intuit QuickBooks “Journey to Success” was also another attempt at connecting with small business owners, and featured ex-Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez. “[This campaign is] not about a pitchman or celebrity, instead we are focusing on bringing to life the perseverance and grit of these ‘early starts’ in a real way,” Subrun explains.

Intuit partnered with its global team to create the North American concept, which was brought to life by Juniper Park\TBWA, the company’s global creative AOR. Hearts & Science did the buy side.

Last year, Intuit had a commercial during the Super Bowl, and this year it’s taking that approach again. “Our appearance at the game will be just one aspect of our campaign, and we believe it will be an exciting platform to demonstrate all that QuickBooks can do to help established and early start businesses grow and succeed,” Subrun says.

The brand brought this campaign to life cross-channel, including TV, social, digital audio and display. Intuit has also engaged influencers as content creators across varying platforms to amplify authentic personal stories of small businesses early in their journey.