Atlanta Hawks CEO Steve Koonin Connected the Team With the City

Steve Koonin’s Atlanta roots run deep. Having been born and raised within the metropolis, the chief government officer of the Atlanta Hawks and State Farm Enviornment has additionally labored for well-known corporations embedded inside Atlanta’s material, together with the Coca-Cola Firm and Turner Broadcasting Firm.This shut connection to town has made his present place overseeing Atlanta’s NBA workforce really feel like a pure match, as he has formed the workforce into one of the vital culturally linked and creatively pushed throughout the league.  Talking onstage at ADWEEK’s Brandweek 2025 in Atlanta, Koonin stated that when he arrived on the Hawks in 2014, he observed the dearth of connection between the workforce and its fan base. Eager to make the Hawks “true to Atlanta,” Koonin stated he and his group felt the workforce wanted to signify town and sought to create a platform based mostly on neighborhood. Among the many initiatives, the State Farm Enviornment was used as a voting web site in the course of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, making it the most important voting precinct in American historical past. Moreover, the Atlanta Hawks Basis, in partnership with the nonprofit group Imaginative and prescient to Be taught, supplies college students from metro Atlanta colleges with free imaginative and prescient screening, eye exams, and a alternative between three frames for his or her glasses.When it got here to the Hawks’ game-day expertise for followers visiting the State Farm Enviornment, Koonin sought to redefine it by mixing tradition and competitors. Evaluating it to a theatre manufacturing, Koonin says the Hawks use plenty of music and leisure to complement the game-day expertise.Utilizing the adage of “southern hospitality,” Koonin says a Hawks sport is “a cultural occasion.” This technique has enabled the workforce to be a prime ten workforce in attendance. Regardless of the workforce’s on-court efficiency, Koonin stated, “No person goes to a Hawks sport and has a nasty time.”Acknowledging town’s transplant standing, Koonin says the workforce is benefiting from that, focusing on the offspring of the transplants, ensuing within the Hawks having “the youngest fan bases within the league” as they discuss to “subsequent technology Atlantans and numerous audiences.”Showcasing Koonin’s affinity for pushing artistic boundaries, the CEO was tasked with elevating consciousness of the NBA’s in-season match throughout its inaugural yr. His advertising and marketing workforce created a cheeky marketing campaign dubbed “Solely Followers,” that includes Harry the Hawk, which generated 40 million views. Acknowledging the boldness of that marketing campaign, Koonin stated, “I don’t assume anyone who grew up in ticket gross sales most likely would take that threat.” Chatting with ADWEEK’s government chairman, Wealthy Battista, Koonin mirrored on his advertising and marketing type with the Hawks, saying, “We aren’t promoting a product, we’re constructing a lifelong relationship.”