Most marketing campaigns are built over weeks, with multiple rounds of revision and ample room to course-correct. The AMA SF Marketing Hackathon strips all of that away and puts you into a time-boxed challenge for a good cause. You’ll work alongside creative minds, technical experts, and fellow marketers, all working to build real solutions for Bay Area nonprofits. What emerges, as last year’s winning team discovered, often turns out to sharper for the pressure!

We sat down with Valerie Gee from last year’s winning team to hear what drove their win: a campaign for the San Jose Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) built around a single, repeatable framework called Ready for Anything, Together. Their path to that finish line involved a mid-event hurdle, a 30-slide deck needing to be simplified, and a lesson in radical prioritization that applies well beyond any hackathon room. 

The Winning Team, in Their Own Words

What inspired your team’s solution?

Our solution was inspired entirely by empathy for our client. In fact, drawing from my previous experience at a brand design agency, I learned that the most important step is to listen carefully beyond the initial brief to uncover the client’s core challenge.

Initially, our team approached the problem like we would for a commercial brand, brainstorming complex funnels. But we quickly had an “a-ha” moment: CERT is run by passionate volunteers, not a marketing department. They didn’t need a ten-point plan; they needed a simple, powerful starting point.

We decided to focus on a top-of-funnel awareness campaign for two reasons. First, the community won’t sign up for a 20-hour training course if they don’t even know what CERT is or why emergency preparedness matters. Second, we identified that key parts of the training schedule were out of the nonprofit’s direct control. So, we chose to empower them by focusing on what they could control: their core messaging and positioning. This led to our “Ready for Anything, Together” campaign—a simple, repeatable framework to actively build awareness and earn trust within their community.

How did your team organize itself once the clock started? 

As this was the first marketing hackathon for everyone on our team, we knew building trust and structure quickly was critical. The first thing we did was a rapid skill assessment. I asked everyone to share their backgrounds and what parts of the project they felt most drawn to. This was essential for understanding our collective strengths and how to collaborate effectively at high speed.

This approach, which draws from my background in marketing and program management, helps create clarity from chaos. We established an open floor for brainstorming where no idea was a bad idea, fostering psychological safety. This allowed us to generate a wide range of thoughts before narrowing our focus. Thus, the initial period of open collaboration set the stage for the resilience and agile approach we’d need later when the team dynamic suddenly shifted.

A key takeaway for future collaborative sprints is the value of using tools like Miro or Figma right from the start to capture, categorize, and prioritize ideas visually.

What was the biggest challenge you faced, and how did you overcome it?

During the hackathon, our team unexpectedly shrank from six members to three with only 35 minutes left before our presentation was due. We were left with a sprawling 30-slide deck and the sudden realization that our presentation was limited to just five minutes.

The way we overcame it is by taking a pause to step back. My remaining teammates, Karina, Lauralynn, and I took a quick break to reset. In that moment of clarity, we rallied. We shifted from trying to solve every problem to focusing on the most critical one, grounding our decision-making in client-centricity. We asked ourselves, “What is most helpful right now?” They didn’t need every challenge solved at that moment; they needed one unified strategy to build upon.

With that context, we made the critical decision to slash our deck to 10 slides and focus on telling one compelling, simple story. This experience was a masterclass in ruthless prioritization, forcing us to distill our strategy down to its core value proposition. It was that intense focus that forged our final, winning pitch.

What was different about designing a campaign for a nonprofit versus a commercial brand?

For a commercial brand, you’re often focused on market share, ROI, and leveraging a budget. For a nonprofit, the primary metrics are empowerment, simplicity, and sustainability.

• Empowerment: Our solution couldn’t require a dedicated marketing team or expensive software. It had to be a framework that a passionate volunteer could implement immediately using free social media tools and pre-built templates.
• Simplicity: With no budget, the strategy had to be built on an engine of organic growth. This meant creating a simple, repeatable content strategy—Educate, Empower, Engage—that would foster a flywheel of user-generated content and authentic community conversation.
• Sustainability: The campaign needed a long shelf life, especially with a diverse audience. We created a five-month editorial calendar with evergreen monthly themes. This ensured that the CERT team had a content roadmap to follow long after the hackathon ended.

How did the time pressure shape your creativity or decision-making?

The tight deadline didn’t limit our creativity; it focused it. We adopted an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) mindset, concentrating on one solid campaign concept that could scale in the future. There was no time for “nice-to-have” features or complex tactics. Every decision was weighed against one question: “What is the most direct, impactful, and simple thing we can do for this client right now?”

This forced a shift from perfectionism to pragmatism. As someone who loves polished presentations, I had to let go of the aesthetics and focus entirely on the substance. The deadline made our decision-making faster and more instinctual. It created an environment where a clear, powerful concept would naturally rise to the top. That pause to double-down on empathy made all the difference.

What surprised you most about this experience?

I was most surprised by the incredible power of a small, hyper-focused team of volunteers aligned by a common mission. Witnessing how quickly the three of us—Karina, Lauralynn, and myself—were able to rally, pivot, and produce a winning strategy in the final 30 minutes was truly inspiring. It was a testament to the fact that with the right focus, a small group can collaborate, find a shared vision, and deliver a meaningful solution.

On a practical level, the experience reinforced a lesson I’ve learned throughout my career: you must always work to understand the true constraints of a project. Discovering the five-minute presentation limit late in the day was a crucial pivot point. It highlighted the importance of seeking clarity and being adaptable, and it ultimately made our final product stronger because it forced us to be relentlessly concise and impactful.

The Takeaway

The 2025 Hackathon was proof that great marketing doesn’t require a big budget, a large team, or months of planning. It requires empathy, focus, and the willingness to strip a strategy down to what actually matters. As the winning team put it: “We are so grateful to the AMA SF, Golden Gate University, and San Jose CERT. This was an unforgettable experience that reinforced our belief in the power of empathetic marketing and its ability to empower communities.” 

Ready to Compete?

The AMA SF Marketing Hackathon 2026 takes place on Friday, April 24, 2026, from 11:00 AM to 6:00 PM at UCSC Silicon Valley Extension in Santa Clara. This year’s event brings together marketers, creatives, and technical experts to develop real strategies for Bay Area nonprofits. Meet like-minded marketing wizards, build new marketing skills, and make a measurable impact in the community.

Whether you’re a seasoned strategist or stepping into your first collaborative sprint, this is what hands-on marketing looks like. Register now at hackathon2026.amasf.org and find out what you’re capable of when the clock starts ticking!