how one small business became another’s sales channel

What can we do to genuinely support small businesses?

That was the question Bank of Georgia Business started with when developing a campaign that went on to win Gold in the Brand Experience & Activation category at Ad Black Sea 2026.

More than 200 participating businesses. Over 3,000 vouchers redeemed. A 23% increase in sales.

Here’s how Bank of Georgia Business and Supermarket Agency created “Small Business Chain” - a campaign that turned one small business into a sales channel for another.

the problem

One of the biggest challenges for small businesses is attracting new customers and building awareness. Unlike larger companies, they rarely have the marketing budgets or communication resources needed to reach audiences at scale.

That led to a more interesting question:

How could the bank go beyond a one-off marketing initiative and create a broader chain of support instead?

the insight

Through its work with small businesses, the Bank of Georgia Business team noticed a recurring behaviour: when one business didn’t offer a particular product or service, it would often recommend another small business that did.

In other words, an informal recommendation network already existed between small businesses.

Research reinforced the observation. When respondents were asked how they had discovered a particular service, recommendations from other small businesses repeatedly appeared among their answers.

This meant the team didn’t need to invent a new behaviour.

They needed to take an existing one, turn it into a clear marketing mechanism and give it scale.

the idea

Based on this insight, the brief was developed and shared with the agency. Supermarket presented several ideas to Bank of Georgia Business, but ultimately, the team chose “Small Business Chain” because it responded most directly to both the problem and the insight behind it.

Elene Kvirkvelia, Head of the Business Marketing Team at Bank of Georgia Business:

“The team really liked the idea of the chain, but before moving forward, we contacted ten businesses to test it. We asked them specific questions and built the project around their responses.

Instead of producing large-scale video commercials, we decided to turn existing business spaces into placements where one business could recommend another. That’s how we turned one small business into a sales channel for another.”

execution

Any business could join the campaign as long as it met two criteria: it had its own physical location, and there was a logical connection to another participating business.


A customer visiting one location would receive a discount voucher for another business. At the next location, they would discover an offer from a third - and so on.

That is how the chain began to grow, connecting cafés, flower shops, coffee shops, hotels and other small businesses. It also expanded beyond Tbilisi, continuing in Batumi.

Luka Bulauri, Wine Square, participant in Small Business Chain:

“We joined the campaign from the very first day. Beyond the fact that building awareness is one of the biggest challenges for small businesses, July and August are also the quietest months for the restaurant industry. So we were interested, we joined - and it worked.

We’ve only been around for four months, and for a young business like ours, it was especially important for more people to discover Wine Square. The large-scale communication and media activity gave our restaurant additional visibility.

But there was another benefit too: the businesses themselves got to know one another better. It created a new space for exchanging ideas and supporting each other.”

the marketing activation

“Small Business Chain” wasn’t tied to the sale of a specific banking product. Its purpose was entirely focused on supporting businesses - and, ultimately, building a community around them.

The campaign unfolded across multiple channels.

Posters and vouchers were placed inside participating businesses. The businesses were featured across Bank of Georgia’s retail channels, mobile banking offers, SMS and newsletter communications, as well as in the media. More than half of the participating businesses were also featured through dedicated photo and video content.

In other words, the campaign didn’t simply advertise small businesses. It built an infrastructure through which they could advertise one another.

the results

A campaign designed to support small businesses eventually became a mechanism through which they supported each other.

Beyond the activities initiated by Bank of Georgia Business, participating businesses began visiting one another, sharing photos and videos on social media and creating their own communication around the campaign.

The participants became distributors of the campaign themselves.

Ultimately, more than 200 businesses joined Small Business Chain, over 3,000 vouchers were redeemed, and participating businesses collectively recorded a 23% increase in sales.

gold at Ad Black Sea 2026

As mentioned earlier, “Small Business Chain” won Gold in the Brand Experience & Activation category at Ad Black Sea 2026.

But what made the idea work?

As we explored in our previous article, What Ad Black Sea 2026 Told Us, one recurring idea across the festival’s talks was that local context can become a powerful source of creativity. A cultural nuance, an everyday behaviour or even a small observation can sometimes provide the foundation for an entire campaign.

“Small Business Chain” started with exactly that kind of observation.

The team noticed a behaviour that already existed naturally between small businesses. Rather than trying to change it, they gave it a clear mechanism, connected more businesses to it and amplified it through a large-scale communication campaign.

And while Bank of Georgia Business didn’t attach a specific banking product to the initiative, it created something potentially more valuable in the long term: a community of small businesses.

A community the bank can continue working with - through future projects, campaigns and activations.

to sum it up

“Small Business Chain” ran for two months.

Small businesses gained marketing exposure, greater awareness and new customers. Consumers gained a reason to discover new places. And Bank of Georgia Business brought a community of small businesses together around its platform.

The results were followed by international recognition: Gold at Ad Black Sea, awarded almost immediately after the campaign ended.

But the value of the project is not limited to what happened during those two months.

A relationship now exists between the bank and the businesses that participated in the campaign - one that can evolve into new projects, activations and collaborations.

And perhaps that is the more interesting long-term effect of “Small Business Chain.”

One campaign ended, but the network it created remains.

Which means the next campaign may already have a place to begin.

Or perhaps the chain itself can simply keep growing - leading us to the next small business worth discovering.