I’m a fan of The West Wing and the Olympics. So, as the 2026 Winter Games open today, here’s a story of how I combined the two into a winning marketing strategy.

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— Ann Gynn

I keep seeing advice to “show up everywhere,” but I don’t have the budget or bandwidth. How do I get noticed without spending more than I can afford?

In 2014, I led marketing for the global Gay Games 9 — an inclusive sporting event open to adults of all athletic abilities. The challenge? A team of three marketing to the world on a very small budget.

So I borrowed a page from pop culture and turned a limited spend into an outsized impact.

That year, the Winter Olympics were in Sochi, Russia. At the same time, mainstream and social media buzzed with conversations about the host country’s anti-gay laws. The timing felt right to raise awareness for Gay Games 9, which would be hosted later that year in Cleveland, Ohio.

But how do you join a global conversation when you don’t have a global budget?

The answer came from an episode of The West Wing. In a flashback to Jeb Bartlett’s first campaign, his team buys inexpensive ads in New Hampshire during the primaries to generate free national media attention.

That idea stuck with me.

Instead of trying to buy national exposure, we focused on regional markets that could spark broader interest. Working with Goldfarb Weber Creative Media, we produced two TV spots — a 30-second version for a U.S. audience and a 60-second version targeted to the Cleveland market.

We bought commercial time during the broadcast of the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics in Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, Toledo, and Buffalo, New York. No national buy. Just smart placement where we could afford to show up.

Then we distributed local, regional, and national news releases about the ad’s debut — the first in Gay Games history — that highlighted the contrast: the most inclusive sporting event in the world appearing alongside coverage of an Olympics hosted in a country enforcing anti-gay laws.

We premiered the ad on social media and encouraged people in those regional markets to watch for it during the Opening Ceremonies.

Because we didn’t pay for a designated time slot (that would have been far more expensive), the ad aired at different times in each market. That unpredictability actually worked in our favor. Supporters took to Twitter, posting about when they saw the ad — or that they were still waiting for it to appear.

The media noticed, too.

An NBC affiliate in Chicago aired the ad during its evening news. The Hollywood Reporter mentioned it in an article about brands advertising during the Sochi Olympics. Cleveland-area print, radio, and TV outlets covered it, as did LGBTQ media, including The Advocate, LGBTQ Nation, and Outlook.

GLAAD even linked to the commercial in its Gay Games 9 partnership announcement.

The impact was immediate. On the day the ad debuted, website visits quadrupled the previous one-day record. Over the next few days, web traffic ran five times the daily average, with 77% of visits coming from new users. Volunteer registrations jumped 11% in that same period.

The lesson still holds for solo entrepreneurs and creators today: You don’t need a massive budget to get noticed. You need the right moment, a focused spend, and a strategy that turns small visibility into larger attention.

Got a question you’d like me to answer in a future edition of The Hotline? Call or text Marketing By One Hotline: +1.440.661.3984.

This week: Borrow the spotlight. Look for a bigger moment, event, or conversation your audience already cares about. Create one piece of content that connects your point of view to that moment. Publish it — then join the conversation where your audience is already hanging out. 

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I needed to find more recent examples for an article. In my prompt, I explained the type of research I sought and set a timeframe of the last few months. I got a few timely options to include (and some options that weren’t as timely, so it’s always good to read through the suggestions before you add the mention and the link.)

Have any AI tricks of your own? Hit reply, call, or text the Marketing By One Hotline: +1.440.661.3984.

Comment thoughtfully on three posts from people in your target audience. Ensure you don’t promote your product or services, as that would make it seem like a sales pitch.

🤖 AI watches content: Ahrefs’ Ryan Law shares an analysis of over 1 billion data points to understand AI search optimization. It finds YouTube mentions are the single strongest predictor of AI visibility. 

🔄 Change of plans? The Content Marketing Institute published my two-question test to see if news or trends should disrupt your marketing strategy.

🚫 Overused CTA verbs: Recent research from Outcome Media reveals the six calls to action that decrease response rates (and overuse in AI-suggested verbiage is likely a contributing factor). Thanks to Nancy Harhut for posting on LinkedIn.

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