AT&T’s CMO tied ‘brand love’ to the numbers CEOs care about. Customers are 3 times less likely to leave and much cheaper to acquire

When Kellyn Smith Kenny joined AT&T as CMO in November 2020, she joined a company whose identity was about to change dramatically.

AT&T had spent years expanding into entertainment, including its $85 billion acquisition of Time Warner, and owned satellite television provider DirecTV.

By the time Kenny arrived, that strategy was giving way to a retrenchment that would return AT&T’s focus to its telecommunications business.

The company would separate DirecTV and eventually spin off WarnerMedia, while directing more capital toward 5G and fiber and reducing debt.

Kenny saw an iconic company that, in her words, had “lost its way a bit” and needed to find its “swagger again.” That complexity was part of the attraction.

Kenny, whose career had taken her through Microsoft , Capital One , Uber , and Hilton, wanted her next job to be at a company where marketing would play a central role in its transformation.

“I’m only going to go to a company where, for that company to truly reach its full potential, marketing has to be a key ingredient,” Kenny recalls of her thinking at the time.

Nearly six years later, the CMO, who also serves as AT&T’s chief growth officer, says the company can quantify how brand strength translates into customer growth.

One measure AT&T tracks is what Kenny calls “brand love,” measured by asking consumers to rate brands on a seven-point scale running from hate to love.

AT&T counts respondents who select either of the two highest ratings, a six or seven, as consumers who love the brand.

AT&T’s brand love score has risen 13 points over the past five years, according to Kenny, who says a one- or two-point increase in a year is typically considered strong performance.

The more consequential finding came when AT&T compared those survey responses with subsequent customer behavior.

Prospects who say they love AT&T are 1.6 times more likely to become customers within the following 12 months, according to the company’s analysis.

Existing customers who love AT&T are three times less likely to leave and roughly 50% more likely to buy a second service, such as adding AT&T home internet to their wireless plan.