The Experience Economy of Sports Marketing with the Atlanta Hawks’ Steve Koonin

[07:59] Multiply Content material From One Massive Inventive Thought — The Hawks reworked a 24-hour Twitch livestream into 145 items of content material distributed throughout a number of social platforms. Somewhat than treating content material as a one-time occasion, the workforce approached it as a supply of countless storytelling alternatives. The technique generated a couple of million views and helped the franchise lead the NBA’s social rankings. Steve highlights how maximizing every content material funding can dramatically enhance attain with out requiring bigger advertising and marketing budgets.

[09:37] Empower Groups to Execute Daring Inventive Concepts — Steve credit most of the Hawks’ most profitable campaigns to a tradition that encourages motion slightly than extreme approval processes. Campaigns such because the OnlyFans parody and Ashley Madison promotion generated tens of thousands and thousands of views as a result of the advertising and marketing workforce had room to experiment. Whereas clear guardrails remained in place, leaders averted diluting concepts by countless revisions. The outcome was breakthrough work that captured consideration and delivered vital earned media worth.

[14:17] Focus Beats Attempting to Attain Everybody — Drawing on classes from each Coca-Cola and the Hawks, Steve argues that focus is one among advertising and marketing’s strongest but underused rules. Manufacturers typically weaken their affect by making an attempt to attraction to each viewers concurrently. As an alternative, entrepreneurs ought to establish their most related prospects and communicate on to them. By concentrating on particular communities and cultural connections, manufacturers can create stronger loyalty, larger differentiation, and extra sustainable long-term progress.

[16:00] Spend money on Reachable Audiences First — Steve explains how the Hawks stopped chasing distant suburban followers and as an alternative invested closely within the native communities they may realistically serve. Somewhat than focusing on folks with weak connections to the workforce, the group targeted on constructing relationships with Atlanta residents and youthful generations. This audience-first technique helped create one of many NBA’s youngest fan bases and strongest attendance figures, proving that deep engagement typically outperforms broad however ineffective outreach efforts.