Kellyn Smith Kenny, CMO of AT&T: Beware of These Famous Fails

Building Better CMOs and Marketing Leaders

Full transcript

When CMO Kellyn Smith Kenny joined AT&T in 2020, she led an ambitious overhaul of the company's purpose; as is the case in many companies, this required a huge amount of customer research, and countless workshops and conversations with employees from across the company. But after landing on a stronger brand — to connect people to greater possibility through expertise, simplicity, and inspiration — Kellyn realized the new identity couldn't be launched to the public yet. Internally, AT&T's staff would have to "live it" first.

"We needed to get our employees excited about it, our employees inspired by it," she says. "We needed for every single employee of the company to have their own connection story, to be able to tell a story that showcased how AT&T was bringing greater possibility either to communities or customers or even members of their own family so it felt real and personal, and it felt like a purpose that they could sign up for."

Today on Building Better CMOs, Kellyn talks with MMA Global CEO Greg Stuart about the incredible success of that rebranding, and why it worked. They also discuss the fatal mistakes that marketers can make in measurement and attribution; the enormous impact AI will have on marketing; embracing change to grow in your marketing career; and more.

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Links:

• Kellyn's LinkedIn
• Greg's LinkedIn

This episode was produced and edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm.

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