Case Study

TCL × The Olympics: betting on greatness before it happens

We built Team TCL before Milano Cortina. Our athletes delivered the two biggest stories of the Games.

Role VP of Brand and Digital Marketing Brand TCL North America Partner Worldwide Olympic TOP Partner, through 2032 Games Milano Cortina 2026

TCL Inspire Greatness: the Olympic campaign film.

Challenge

Worldwide Olympic TOP partnership is the most exclusive tier in sports marketing, a club that includes Coca-Cola, Visa, and now TCL through 2032. But the Olympics is the opposite of a season you can build a selling rhythm around. It's the whole world watching for two weeks, and then it's gone. Every decision that determines whether the partnership pays has to be made before the flame is lit.

Insight

The Olympics aren't watched. They're felt. Nobody remembers the brand that ran the most spots. They remember the brand inside the story they cried over. Athletes carry that feeling, and the right athletes carry it home.

Idea

Team TCL: pick the athletes whose stories were headed for Milano Cortina 2026, and connect Olympic emotion to the screen families would feel it on.

Execution

We built a 14-athlete roster under the banner "Inspire Greatness," anchored by Eileen Gu as Global Brand Ambassador and Jack and Quinn Hughes carrying American hopes in hockey. National spots put the brothers on screen together. The campaign built for 100 days toward the Games, across broadcast, social, and retail, so the brand was already woven into the athletes' stories before the world started watching.

Jack and Quinn Hughes with their gold medals, draped in the American flag
Team TCL GOLD: Jack and Quinn Hughes, Milano Cortina 2026
The Team TCL medal wall from Milano Cortina 2026
Milano Cortina 2026, TCL Worldwide Olympic Partner
TCL, Worldwide Olympic Partner

The Payoff

The numbers

1st
American men's hockey gold in 46 years, won on Jack Hughes' overtime golden goal against Canada, with his brother Quinn on the ice beside him
3
Medals for Eileen Gu, halfpipe gold and two silvers, making her the most decorated freestyle skier in Olympic history
14
Athletes on the Team TCL roster, chosen before the world was watching
2032
TCL's Worldwide Olympic TOP partnership horizon
100
Days of campaign build toward the Games, across broadcast, social, and retail
2
Of the Games' defining moments belonged to Team TCL athletes, with the brand standing next to both before anyone knew the ending

Learning

Media buys rent a moment. Conviction owns it.

The biggest platforms don't make brands matter. Brands make platforms matter, by finding the human stories inside them and betting early.