Building Better CMOs and Marketing Leaders

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

Jul 26, 2023

AT&T's CMO Kellyn Smith Kenny reveals the success of their brand overhaul by first engaging employees. The discussion dives into AI's impact on marketing, the dangers of last click attribution, and the importance of creativity in advertising. Embracing change and innovation, the podcast explores the future of marketing leadership and the power of inspirational leadership to drive growth.

58:54

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Episode guests

Kellyn Smith Kenny

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Episode notes

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Quick takeaways

Successful rebranding requires internal alignment and employee buy-in before launch.

AI technology is transforming marketing with personalization and improved efficiency.

Holistic approaches and multi-touch attribution are crucial for accurate marketing performance assessment.

Deep dives

Marketing Moving at a Fast Pace

Marketing is evolving rapidly, and staying complacent means falling behind. To lead in the future, continuous disruptive innovation and conditioning oneself and the team for constant change are crucial.

Introduction

2min

Embracing Generative AI in Marketing at AT&T

3min

AI Personalization in Advertising: Transforming Performance

10min

Aligning Internal Buy-In with External Branding Changes

16min

Ensuring Marketing Expertise in Data Analysis and Creative Outputs

2min

Optimizing Ad Performance through Pre-Testing and Creative Quality

3min

Embracing Change and Innovation in Marketing

19min

Futuristic Vision and Inspirational Leadership in Marketing

3min

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