Published by Sue Johns-Chapman
Published Date 13.10.2026 
We are delighted to share that our Chief Operating Officer, Kerry Nicholson, has won Operations Professional of the Year at the UK Agency Awards 2026. The category is new this year, created to recognise the people who keep agencies running, which makes it a particularly good one to take home.
It caps a strong year for the agency, which was shortlisted in all four categories it entered, covering agency performance, culture and individual talent at both ends of the career ladder.
Who we are
Brand Champions is an award-winning, independent marketing agency specialising in on-demand and embedded marketing talent across sectors including pharma and healthcare, FMCG and QSR, travel and retail. Through our SOS (Service on Stand-by) service, we deploy experienced marketing professionals into client organisations at pace, giving brands the senior expertise they need exactly when they need it. The agency has now reached £3m in revenue, and much of the machinery behind that growth is Kerry’s work.
The operational backbone
Over the past 18 months, Kerry has transformed the agency’s operational foundations, building the systems, processes and culture that turned ambitious targets into commercial reality.
When Kerry took greater ownership of operations, Brand Champions lacked the visibility needed to scale confidently. Forecasting was manual, project profitability was unclear and resource allocation was reactive. Kerry changed that. By implementing a fully integrated resource planning and project management framework within Monday Enterprise, they gave the entire agency, from individual team members to the leadership team, a real-time view of delivery, utilisation and profitability for the first time.
The results speak for themselves. We have hit our £3m revenue target, and the visibility Kerry created has made growth far more predictable and more profitable.
That operational thinking has not stayed inside our own business either. The same frameworks have since been rolled out to clients, which was one of the things the judges picked up on. Systems that hold up under the pressure of a growing agency tend to hold up inside the client teams we embed into as well.
Kerry came to agency operations by a route that shows in the work. Kerry’s career began in customer service and learning and development, followed by more than a decade with organisations including Virgin Media, Virgin Holidays, River Island and Royal Caribbean Group. That grounding in operations at scale is a large part of why a small agency can run on foundations built for a much bigger one.
People at the centre
Kerry has led every initiative with people at the centre. Working closely with our studio and client services teams, they redesigned the design resource process, reducing friction and improving both delivery quality and project profitability. Recognition, wellbeing and culture have had as much deliberate investment as dashboards and governance.
The outcome is a team that stays. Turnover has remained minimal, team happiness sits above 90 per cent and client retention stands at 87 per cent, all sustained through a period of significant growth and change. Operations and culture are often treated as separate conversations. Kerry treats them as the same job.
That matters more than it might in another agency. Our model depends on experienced marketers choosing to work with us, so the quality of the day to day experience inside Brand Champions is what makes the service our clients receive possible in the first place.
What the judges said
The judges highlighted that Kerry has “successfully built a highly profitable, scalable operations infrastructure, which has also been rolled out to clients”, describing the submission as “a highly compelling entry with impressive commercial results”.
One judge wrote: “Love the fact Kerry takes a 360 approach to implementing new processes”, pointing to the high team happiness score as the proof of it. Others picked out the “strong KPIs and a great overview of Kerry’s experience and value add across the agency”, and the way the entry tied that effort back to business impact.
“Kerry owns multiple hats and departments, as a consequence of leading a small team on great projects. The returns are great and they thrive at scalability.”
What the win means to Kerry
“Winning Operations Professional of the Year means a great deal, especially in a category that is brand new this year and puts the people working behind the scenes front and centre. Operations is rarely the loudest part of an agency, but it is what allows everyone else to do their best work. The last 18 months have been about building foundations strong enough for the business to grow on, and none of that happens without a brilliant team around me. I am taking this as encouragement to keep learning, keep improving and keep making a difference.” Kerry Nicholson, COO, Brand Champions
Follow along
You can find out more about how we work on our website, take a closer look at our Service on Stand-by (SOS) service, or read our guide to hyperlocal versus local marketing for an example of the practical thinking our team shares. To keep up with the team, follow Brand Champions on LinkedIn.
Congratulations to every winner and finalist at this year’s UK Agency Awards, and thank you to the organisers for creating a category that gives agency operations the recognition it deserves.
