Marketing Consultancy

The marketing strategy
your competition
already has.

Fractional CMO leadership, brand strategy, and go-to-market thinking for founders, CEOs, and leadership teams who are done building in the dark and ready to compete on the right things.

15+ years exp. Nike · PepsiCo · Mars Currently at Klar
The Blue Elf Marketing Consultancy
The real problem Our approach

Great products don't always become great brands.

Senior thinking, direct access.

Most businesses at this stage are not lacking effort. They are running content, campaigns, every channel someone has pointed them toward. Nothing quite coheres into a brand with real presence. That is rarely a tactics problem.

It is a strategy problem. And it persists because the thinking required, the kind that comes from years inside demanding organisations at scale, is usually locked behind a full-time executive hire or an agency retainer with no real ownership of outcomes.

The result is a leadership gap: unclear positioning, misaligned teams, wasted spend, and a brand that never quite lands the way the product deserves.

Direct access to the right expertise

You work directly with someone who has led brand strategy at Nike, Klar, PepsiCo, and Mars. The same thinking that shaped some of the world's most recognised brands, applied to yours.

Strategic value, right-sized investment

Senior marketing leadership no longer requires a six-figure executive on the payroll. This model makes it available precisely when the right strategic decisions have the most room to compound.

Built around your specific moment

Every engagement starts from a clean slate. Your market, your product, your moment. The same rigour that goes into a global brand campaign goes into yours.

Who we serve

Built for businesses at a turning point

Startups and Early-Stage Companies

You are building something real but your marketing is still catching up. You need someone who can set the strategic direction, define how the brand should be positioned, and help you spend your limited resources in the right order.

Request a strategy call

Small Businesses With a Product

You have customers, traction, and a product that works. But your marketing has never quite cohered into something that feels like a brand. That is the problem this work exists to solve: turning what you have into something that compounds.

Request a strategy call

Founders and Leadership Teams

You understand the business better than anyone. What you need is a senior strategic partner who can translate that understanding into a marketing direction that the whole organisation can execute behind.

Request a strategy call
How we work

Six ways we can help

Every engagement is scoped around your situation, from a single-sprint strategy project to ongoing fractional leadership.

Not sure where to start?

Most engagements begin with a Marketing Audit: a structured diagnostic that maps your current state, identifies the gaps, and points to the right path forward before committing to anything larger.

Request a complimentary audit
Sofia Holden
Your consultant

Fifteen years building brands at the highest level. Now applied to yours.

At Nike, the work spanned brand and category strategy across Football, Running, Women's and Lifestyle, covering Mexico, Latin America and the United States. That scale demands precision in positioning, clarity in messaging, and the ability to build brands people genuinely connect with.

That foundation carried through PepsiCo and Mars, and underpins the current role at Klar as Head of Marketing and Brand Strategy. The disciplines are the same regardless of scale: know your market, know your brand, make every decision deliberately.

The thinking that builds great brands is not fundamentally different from what a growing business needs. It just is not usually accessible. This consultancy exists to change that.

The process

From first conversation to clear direction.

Step 01

Discovery

Time: 45 min

You share the problem, the context, and what matters most. No brief required, no preparation needed.

Step 02

Assessment

Time: 48 hrs

A written assessment lands in your inbox: what you need, how it gets done, the timeline, and the investment.

Step 03

Brief

Time: 90 min

Once approved, bring your team in the room. A working session to align on the brief and build the path forward together.

Step 04

Strategy and Plan Delivery

Time: 60 min

Your complete strategy lands: clear, focused, and ready for your team to execute. As straightforward as that.

Frequently asked questions

Everything you need to know before we talk.

Questions about how engagements work, what things cost, and whether this is the right fit for your business.

An agency executes what you direct. A fractional CMO sets the direction. This work covers strategy, positioning, team leadership, and the decisions that determine whether your marketing actually builds the business — not the delivery of ads, content calendars, or social posts. You get someone embedded in your business who owns the marketing direction and is accountable to outcomes.
Often, yes. A marketing team is an execution asset. What most growing businesses lack is the senior strategic layer above the team — someone who sets the direction, makes the high-level calls, and holds the function accountable to business goals. This engagement sits above the team, not alongside it. In many cases it also sharpens the team: clearer briefs, sharper priorities, the right org structure, and people in the right seats.
The right fit is less about size and more about where the business is in its marketing maturity. Most engagements are with founders and leadership teams whose businesses have traction but whose marketing has not yet become a strategic function. That typically means companies with some revenue and a product that works, but without a clear brand, go-to-market strategy, or senior marketing ownership.
Every engagement is scoped individually after the discovery call. Project-based work — brand strategy, go-to-market planning, annual operating plans — has a defined scope and a fixed fee outlined in the written assessment you receive within 48 hours of your first call. Fractional CMO retainers are priced monthly based on involvement level. The first call is free and you will know the full investment before committing to anything.
Yes. Brand strategy, go-to-market planning, media strategy, annual operating plans, and consumer insights work can all be delivered as fixed-scope projects with a defined timeline and fee. The fractional CMO model is the only engagement that requires an ongoing commitment, since embedded leadership needs time to understand the business and compound results. If you are unsure where to start, the Marketing Audit is the right first step.
Nothing formal. Come with a clear sense of your biggest marketing challenge and an honest view of what you have already tried. You do not need a deck, a brief, or a budget number — just the problem as you currently understand it. The more direct and specific you are in that conversation, the more useful the written assessment will be.
Once the proposal is approved, the kick-off session with your team can be scheduled within days. There is no extended onboarding period. Work begins from the first brief session. Most clients have a clear strategic direction within a matter of weeks from the first conversation.
Yes. All engagements are conducted remotely and scheduled around your timezone. The experience spans Latin America, Mexico, and the United States, with exposure to global brand strategy across Nike, Klar, PepsiCo, and Mars. Market context and regional nuance are always part of how the work is scoped.
For project-based work, the commitment is the duration of the project — typically four to eight weeks. For fractional CMO retainers, the minimum is three months. Meaningful strategic leadership requires time to understand the business, align the team, and begin showing results. A three-month minimum ensures both sides are working toward the same horizon.
Every engagement operates under a mutual confidentiality agreement. Business strategy, competitive positioning, financials, and everything shared in sessions remains strictly private. A mutual NDA is standard before any substantive work begins.
Let's talk

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