Brand · GTM · Growth · AI-Native

You shouldn't have to choose between a brand that means something and a system that runs.

I do both. Most strategists won't touch the infrastructure. Most technologists won't touch the story. I build both — and wire the AI systems that make it ship 160× faster.

Spokane, WA · Remote · US & EU · Senior advisory · Fractional CMO · Board roles

Kevin Keohane
20+ years EY · Deloitte · Coca-Cola · GSK · RBS 14 years in London at WPP & Publicis AI-native delivery
What I solve

Five problems I've spent 20 years fixing

Each one sounds like a marketing problem. None of them are.

01 / 05
We spend on marketing and I can't see the return.
Proof · 40+ GTM playbooks for Deloitte, $10M–$10B+ targets

It's rarely the marketing. The positioning was never actually settled, so sales improvises a different story in every room and the agency optimises hard against the wrong message. The expensive part isn't the wasted budget. It's eighteen months spent solving the wrong problem competently.

02 / 05
We're better than them. On paper we look the same.
Proof · EarthScope — $400M+ contract won and defended

Categories reach parity on the page long before they reach it in practice. A comparison grid rewards whatever fits inside a cell, so the better offer scores the same as the weaker one. You don't win by arguing harder inside the cell. You win by changing what the buyer believes the cells should be — before the criteria get written.

03 / 05
We agreed the strategy. Then nothing happened.
Proof · EY — one story, 150 countries, 300,000 people

It was written centrally, admired in the room, and quietly ignored by the people expected to carry it. Adoption is the deliverable, not the deck. A strategy that needs authority to travel doesn't travel — it has to be built for the people who will use it, not the people who will approve it.

04 / 05
We're promising what our own people can't deliver.
Proof · EX2CX methodology · two books on where brand and talent converge

The promise outruns operational reality and the company pays for the gap twice — in attrition and in churn. By the time it surfaces in Glassdoor and CX scores it has been costing money for two years. EX2CX maps employee-experience friction to customer-experience failure: culture priced as a commercial problem, not an HR one.

05 / 05
We've become several companies sharing a logo.
Proof · Dormakaba · LTIMindtree — five AI offerings, one idea

Multiple products, segments or acquisitions, each arriving with its own story — then flattened into sameness or fragmented into incoherence. Neither is a messaging problem. It's architecture: what holds at the top, what flexes underneath, and who decides.

About

Kevin Keohane

Brand, GTM & growth strategist. Now AI-native and building the systems that make strategy ship 160× faster.

Twenty years of fixing strategy problems at the highest level — EY, Deloitte, Coca-Cola, GlaxoSmithKline, Royal Bank of Scotland. Fourteen years based in London at WPP and Publicis. Now in Spokane, WA, running Brand & Talent: an AI-native practice that assembles bespoke senior teams and wires the agentic systems to make the work ship faster.

Available for senior advisory, fractional CMO engagements, and board roles across US and EU markets. Remote-first, senior-always — no juniors running your account.

20+Years in brand & GTM strategy
150+Countries. One EY story.
$400M+EarthScope contract won
160×Faster delivery with AI
What I do

Four outcomes. One accountable lead.

I find the single true story inside your complexity — then build the positioning, pipeline, culture, and automation that turn it into growth.

🎯

Brand Positioning & Strategy

The messaging spine inside organisational complexity — a distinctive, defensible position and the brand narrative that makes every downstream decision easier.

🚀

Go-to-Market & Growth

The demand-gen, alliance, and partner infrastructure — GTM and sales-enablement "operating systems" that convert brand narrative into qualified pipeline.

👥

EX→CX & Culture Alignment

My EX2CX methodology connects employee-experience friction to customer-experience outcomes — culture as a measurable commercial lever, not an HR exercise.

🤖

AI-Enabled Delivery

I build the agentic-AI content and automation infrastructure — compressing strategy cycles and keeping every asset on-brand at scale.

What leaders say

Trusted by executives across industries

"Kevin has been a valuable advisor and partner on a wide range of strategic issues — from core strategy development to brand differentiation to developing talent and culture. He listens carefully. He researches carefully. And he responds with creative, winning ideas and counsel."
Jack LawsonPresident & CEO, Clearwater Credit Union
"Kevin is an incredibly rare blend of strategic and creative with the pragmatism and commercial insight to get things done and make a business level difference. Kevin's work is always highly differentiated and effective."
Amy KingdonStrategic Marketing Leader, Professional Services
"A great mix of creativity, rigour and insight makes him one of the best professionals I have ever interacted with. If you get a chance to work with him, take it."
Peter BellManaging Partner, Bell Brand Engagement
"In fields that tend towards the aspirational and ethereal, Kevin relentlessly keeps it real with grounded advice, sharp analysis and recommendations that actually work."
Michael Harry KleinEditor-in-Chief, Strategic Magazine; IABC Fellow
"Kevin's leadership has been instrumental in transforming and growing our agency from the inside out. A big thinker, a leader, a team player, and a high performer while remaining humble and approachable."
Tony FerriniStrategy Director (8-year engagement)
"Kevin has the ability to unlock and invoke passion, creativity and original ideas in those that collaborate with him. This gift is one worth noting and cherishing — it is rare and crucial in the team context and of great value to clients."
Thomas WinkelmannCo-Founder, A Hundred Years; Senior Advisor, SYPartners
Articles

Thinking on brand, GTM & growth

Practical strategy from 20 years in the work.

View all 28 articles →

Ready to fix the real problem?

Senior advisory, fractional CMO, or board roles. US & EU. 30 minutes, no obligation.