To play in the big leagues, or simply produce successful ads, one must first bring some significant cash to the table? False. Although the bottomless ad budget syndrome is popular, it’s not the only approach. Special effects and star power often help, but they don’t always win. Take Joe and Dave Herbert, for example. They recently won the Doritos Crash the Super Bowl Bowl Contest with their ad “Free Doritos.”

The brothers spent a whopping $2,000 on their ad, compared to the millions spent by professionals in the ad biz during the annual commercial show down. In addition to winning the 1 million dollar Doritos prize purse, the ad also topped out as the number one ad overall during the game, based on results from USA Today’s ad meter. Anheuser-Busch and Bridgestone claimed the 2-4 spots, with number 5 awarded to another Doritos applicant.

Is the Herbert brothers’ success story a one in a million? Maybe. But, they did just bring home a check that’s about equal to the odds that were stacked against them. The prize for the rest of us: successful ads don’t always need a bankroll of Super Bowl-sized proportions. In our recent campaign for Bank of Jackson Hole, we skipped overly-produced effects and spendy bottom lines to focus instead on real customers, with real stories. When you’re contemplating that next campaign, don’t just whip out the checkbook. Spend some time planning, and it’s ok to operate within a modest-sized budget. You never know how far a strong concept will take you.

In case you missed them live, you can watch all of the Super Bowl ads here.