When this year’s Olympic winter games began in Sochi, Russia, things didn’t go quite as planned. Journalists arrived to find their hotel rooms only half-finished. So they turned to Twitter to complain about their bad experiences and a hashtag (plus a Twitter account with 335k followers) was born: #SochiProblems.

Right away, Airbnb, the world’s largest hospitality company (with over 500 listings in Sochi), seized the opportunity for a little real-time marketing, hijacking the hashtag and answering journalists problems directly via Twitter. Airbnb was there to “rescue them”, offering the journalists new accommodations, making fun of the #SochiProblems.

The #SochiProblems hashtag (555,573 mentions) had become a conversation about Airbnb. The brand had seemingly turned into one of the biggest sponsors at the Olympics, all without sponsoring anything. Actually, they did it with just a few tweets.

When journalists tweeted, complaining about their accommodations in Sochi, Airbnb responded with fun tweets, including links to amazing places for them to stay in Sochi.

The #SochiProblems hashtag (555,573 mentions) had become a conversation about Airbnb. People felt sorry for the ‘poor’ journalists and started posting on behalf of the brand, trying to help solve the Sochi Problems. The brand had seemingly turned into one of the biggest sponsors at the Olympics, all without sponsoring anything. Actually, they did it with just a few tweets.