ATLANTA—Everyone remembers the kid who tried too hard to be liked—always giving something away, butting into other people’s conversations, never failing to kill a good joke.
The lesson was clear: Nobody likes desperate. Allowing people to like something or someone is a far more effective approach than begging.
The Atlanta Hawks realized they had a similar problem, not long ago. They needed to be liked, but they had to be smart about winning Atlanta’s favor.
To make matters worse, they faced a PR nightmare after racially insensitive remarks from previous ownership about Atlanta’s fanbase and Luol Deng were made public. Some apologizing was necessary, as was an overhaul of the franchise's business philosophies.
‘We Just Didn’t Have a Story’
“People knew we existed, they just didn’t care,” says Peter Sorckoff, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Chief Creative Officer for the Hawks. “Initially it was like, ‘we just need to wi ...
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Article written by Stephen Knox