AGENT KELLY
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Agent profile

Bernadette Kelly, fractional CMO

New York and LA roots, Manchester base, commercially minded. A career spent building marketing functions, growing revenue and leading teams for brands from Manchester United to Unilever.

  • Codename Agent Kelly
  • Base Manchester, UK
  • Clearance Board level
Agent Kelly at a tall window as the skyline changes from New York to Los Angeles to Manchester, each city named at the top of the window, then turning to face the viewer
Gold line drawing of New York towers, Los Angeles palm trees and hills, and Manchester mill chimneys and a clock tower beneath a scope reticle, each labelled with its city nameNew York · LA · Manchester
The story

From sales floor to boardroom

Our founder came into marketing through sales and commercial leadership, and that has shaped everything since. She cares about what marketing does for pipeline, acquisition cost, lifetime value and margin. Awards are nice. Revenue is better.

New York taught her pace. LA taught her that brand and story matter as much as the numbers. Manchester is where she built and led content, SEO, social, paid media, PR and influencer functions for global consumer brands, regulated gambling operators, affiliate publishers and challenger start-ups.

Agent Kelly is how we work now: as a fractional CMO, interim leader, non-executive director and strategic advisor to businesses that need senior thinking without a full-time hire.

Hand-picked

The only digital marketer on the VOOM panel

When Virgin Media and LinkedIn ran VOOM, their national competition for start-ups, Bernadette was chosen from thousands of applicants as the only digital marketing expert on the advisory panel.

She mentored the finalists through the competition and helped choose the winner, judging each business on the things that matter to investors: a clear proposition, a credible route to market and a plan to grow.

Why Agent Kelly

Three agents, one name

The name is a nod to AI agents, secret agents and sales agents. Each says something true about the way we work.

01

AI agent

We use AI every day for research, briefs, QA and reporting, and help teams adopt it well. Strategy still comes before tools, and human judgment stays in charge.

02

Secret agent

Discreet, prepared and focused on the mission. Every engagement starts with investigation and ends with a clear plan.

03

Sales agent

A commercial background means every recommendation is judged on its contribution to growth.

On the record

As featured in

Bernadette has been interviewed by and written for business, marketing and iGaming publications on SEO, affiliates, social media and growth.

Service record

Career highlights

Full CV and recommendations are on LinkedIn.

  1. Most recently

    Digital Marketing Director, Hiveminded Agency

    Built full-stack content, social, influencer, SEO, paid media and digital PR propositions from scratch, and led a global delivery team across the UK, Europe and North America for eCommerce, B2B and regulated clients.

  2. Previously

    Commercial and Media Director, ActiveWin Media

    Led SEO, content, social, paid media, PR and UX for regulated and consumer brands, helping the agency grow while keeping ISO 9001 standards and working closely with compliance and legal teams.

  3. Earlier

    Sales and Marketing Director, The Confidentials

    Led commercial turnaround at a regional lifestyle-media publisher, owning digital, social, SaaS and events propositions for premium lifestyle, hospitality and retail brands.

  4. Where it started

    Head of Marketing and Business Development, 2ergo Group

    Launched mobile SaaS products for an AIM-listed group serving major retail, telecoms and betting brands.

Recognition

Awards and industry roles

  • Digital Marketing Company of the Year, Corporate Live Wire Manchester Prestige Awards
  • Finalist, Northern eCommerce Awards and Northern Marketing Awards
  • Judge, London Affiliate Conference
  • Featured in the Manchester Evening News, Gambling Insider, iGB Affiliate, InterGaming and Virgin Media Business
  • Selected from thousands of applicants as the only digital marketing expert on the Virgin Media and LinkedIn VOOM panel, mentoring the finalists and helping choose the winner
  • Co-presenter with a Google global search lead at MTEX London
Philosophy

Strategy before automation

Dashboards tell you what is happening. Strategy explains why customers choose you, which opportunities matter most and how every channel should work together to reach the business goal.

AI makes good specialists faster, from content and social to community and customer service. It still needs people who can prompt it, calibrate tone, understand conversion and make the final call. Any investment in tools should fit the marketing plan, not replace it.

Next step

Brief us.

Tell us where the business is heading and what is getting in the way. We will reply within two working days with an honest view on whether, and how, we can help.

Request a briefing hello@agentkelly.co.uk