It was one of the great ‘hostage’ stories of modern times.

The hostages: 5,000 cups of Chobani Yogurt, bound for glory: the USA athletes in Sochi. There was even a special day at Chobani’s Idaho plant, giving the yogurt the rousing send-off it deserved.

Then Russia denied them entry.

But Chobani would not take nyet for an answer. It enlisted the help of U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer who made an impassioned plea. The US Department of Agriculture got involved. We explained that America’s #1 selling Greek Yogurt had been part of the Olympic training regimen for years, and that it was meant for Team USA consumption only, and not for sale.

But Putin, citing arcane dairy import laws, still wouldn't budge. Over the course of ten days, Chobani’s hostage yogurt became a national story. Chobani took the high road and was judicious in its media outreach. As public support swelled, we decided to play up the absurdity of the situation.

#freeChobani became the hashtag rallying cry of our passionate customer base.

Media coverage included segments on The Today Show and NBC Nightly News as well as front-page articles in all major newspapers.

In two weeks, we garnered 26 million+ print impressions, 95 million social impressions, and $43 million of free media, defusing a potential political problem and turning it into a big win for Chobani.

And the yogurt? All 5,000 cups were donated to grateful food banks and charities – reinforcing Chobani’s reputation for goodness, decency and doing what’s right.

Once the ‘hostage crisis’ story broke, public opinion was on our side. Denying our athletes their smoothies raised a lot of eyebrows, here and abroad. We knew we had to capitalize on this but tread lightly, positioning the story as an unnecessarily political response to a simple humanitarian gesture.

We had to let the story speak for itself, and we did. Rather than come out fighting, Chobani’s first official statement was to thank the political officials working on its behalf, like New York Senator Chuck Schumer.

When the story went public, we leveraged Chobani’s reputation as the “Good Guys", long-term corporate sponsors caught in the middle of a silly political gesture.

Our strategy caught the interest of politicians, Team USA and fans, sparking intense broadcast, media interest and social conversation. Virtually everybody sided with us.

Peter McGuinness, Chief Marketing and Brand Officer of Chobani, summed up the tone of the strategy as well as the consumer response when his words became the New York Times Quote of the Day: “I’d like to think that yogurt could have diplomatic immunity.”

The numbers were impressive:

-Print Impressions: 26 million

-Broadcast Audience: 52 million

-Social Impressions: 95 million

-Free media valued at $43 million

-Donated yogurt: 5,000 cups

But numbers alone can’t begin to tell the story of how Chobani’s reputation grew. The change in consumer awareness, the thousands of favorable tweets, retweets, and Facebook “likes” not only increased consumer awareness, but managed to grow Chobani’s reputation by leaps and bounds – both as a long-term corporate sponsor, and as a company dedicated to democratizing healthy eating.

A potential political crisis turned into a huge win, even though Chobani’s yogurt never made it to Sochi.