By Amara Osei

The Washington Spirit's average Net Promoter Score sits at 82, against roughly 50 to 60 for other live sporting events — and Kim Bolt, the club's Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer, presented that gap as the business case for brand. She made the claim at the Mid-Atlantic MarCom Summit in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 14, alongside marketing heads from a beverage startup and a defense contractor.

Their shared problem: CEOs still do not treat marketing as a primary growth lever, even as they expect marketing leaders to drive revenue. Each panelist answered with a different metric. Whether those metrics will satisfy a skeptical C-suite remains the open question — a point the panel itself acknowledged when it conceded that connecting marketing activity to measurable business outcomes remains a challenge.

"The 'business' part of our business wouldn't be possible if we didn't have a strong Big B," said Bolt, using "Big B" as shorthand for branding.

How does each company measure brand?

Just Ice Tea, a four-year-old beverage company, has written brand directly into its annual OKRs (Objectives and Key Results). Allison Moss, Head of Marketing, described the company as mission-driven and said its measures include household penetration to track trial, repeat purchases and awareness. The brand is now in more than 20,000 retail locations, Moss said.

"Brand is about loyalty. It's about retention," Moss said. She tracks multiple measures because, in her words, "It's the combination of those things that tells the whole picture."

The Spirit takes a different route. Marketing cannot control whether the team wins, Bolt said, but it can shape the story around players, the community connection and the match-day experience. Hence the NPS figure as the brand-health indicator.

What makes a brand claim credible?

Sheila Blackwell, Chief Marketing Officer at defense contracting firm ManTech, laid out the problem bluntly: companies in government contracting make near-identical claims about cybersecurity, data and artificial intelligence. ManTech, roughly 60 years old, ran brand sentiment research to test how it was perceived internally and externally. One survey raised questions; the company ran two more.

The result was not a full rebrand but a visual refresh and a sharper account of what sets the firm apart — notably, that almost 40% of its employees are veterans.

"We know them because we are them," said Blackwell.

Her summary of the profile problem carried the panel's best line: "We are the best kept secret in the secret keeping business."

Panelists agreed that distinctiveness must rest on something the organization can credibly claim. Moss pointed to Just Ice Tea's organic, fair-trade ingredients and lower-sugar recipe. Bolt cited the club's connection to Washington and its fans.

Can buyers become advocates?

Just Ice Tea built what Moss called a "brand world" — carrying values and visual identity across customer interactions, then creating occasions for customers to talk to each other. Its website loyalty program awards points, but Moss said its real purpose is starting conversations: customers share how they recycle bottles or cans, giving others a reason to respond.

Bolt drew a harder line between purchase and commitment: "A customer is somebody who buys a ticket, but a tribe is an audience who wants to bring a friend." The Spirit gives season-ticket members access to players and the front office.

Focus groups probed how deep that attachment runs. Asked how the club's disbanding would affect their daily lives, some fans said they would lose "their sense of faith in humanity," Bolt recalled.

Do sales and marketing share the goal?

Blackwell argued that marketing sets the price of the conversation before sales ever arrives. Marketing cannot set the actual price or change the technology, she said, but by the time sales engages, "they already know who you are. They have an opinion of you." That familiarity, she argued, can make a buyer accept a higher price.

"Maybe that price might be a little high, but they're willing to go because they know everything about you. And that's the power of the big B," said Blackwell.

The Spirit formalizes the partnership: shared OKRs clarify marketing's contribution to ticket sales, Bolt said, with the ticketing team owning season-ticket sales and a RACI model — a responsibility assignment matrix — defining who does what. Moss said her team at Just Ice Tea sets annual objectives collectively with sales, operations and company leaders.

Three sectors, three metric sets, one argument. The evidence these executives offered is real but self-reported; none cited independent verification. The pressure now is on marketers to make numbers like an 82 NPS or 20,000 doors legible to a CEO fluent only in revenue.