Buffy McCoy Kelly - Executive Creative Director/CW, Creative Strategist, and Senior Marketing Leader

Kick ass. Be kind.

I am an Executive Creative Director/CW, Creative Strategist, and Senior Marketing Leader with deep experience in developing impactful strategic creative marketing for global B2C and B2B brands.

I craft compelling creative storytelling and comprehensive strategies for the brands I serve. I am efficient, intuitive, and intelligent in my approach, and I lead for my clients’ business success and for memorable brand work.  I am equally at home alongside client leadership in the boardroom as I am in the trenches with my sleeves rolled up, creating and problem-solving. 

I am the Founder and former Executive Director, Creative and Strategy, of Tattoo Projects, named one of Ad Age’s Small Agencies of the Year, a top Woman-Owned Business, and 2x Fastest-Growing Businesses in Charlotte, NC, the nation’s fastest-growing city. After the successful sale of my company in 2021, I am enjoying select projects with great people who challenge and inspire me.

  • My work has earned a wide variety of international creative awards, including One Show, D&AD, EMMY, Telly, ADDY, and more. My work has been recognized by Communication Arts, Creativity, Ad Age, Adweek, PR Week, The Drum, and Contagious Magazine, to name a few. But most importantly, it has been an integral part of business growth and successes for my clients. I have been named "Woman Extraordinaire" by Business Leader, "Genius on Paper" by Communication Arts, and one of the Top 25 Working Mothers in Advertising by Working Mother Magazine.

    I am a long-time yoga teacher and Yoga Alliance Continuing Education Provider, and I work to align my leadership style with the disciplines of my yoga practice, approaching every situation with a balance of strength and ease. I am most comfortable taking risks, thinking big and making an outsized impact - and in guiding and supporting others to do the same.

    I enjoy fiction writing, and was recently named a top-ten award winner for 2023 NYC Midnight’s international short fiction competition. Fun fact: I am a “real McCoy”, a direct descendent of the legendary Hatfield-McCoy Feud.

download my cv

recognized by:

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News & Notes

Katerina Katerina

Thrive Global Interview : There is enough success for everyone Published in Authority Magazine

Even as a kid I knew in some way that what advertising did was influential in people’s lives and I wanted to be a part of it. I would make my own commercials and draw my own ads all the time. I even wrote to the mail order company Hang Ten once and sent them a sketch of what I thought was a better layout for their catalogue. They wrote back and thanked me and told me that I should reach out to them for a job when I was older.

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Katerina Katerina

In Her Own Words: Charlotte’s Buffy McCoy Kelly faces RBF on Zoom

We are mirrors to one another, and when we put out positive energy, or make an effort to show happiness and contentment on our faces, we’ll see more of that reflected back to us from others. Positivity behaves like a virus, which seems pretty fitting for a pandemic. Thank you, Zoom, for making me look at myself. And readers — you can’t see me, but I’m smiling at you right now!

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