Services
Search and advisory services for digital, marketing and creative teams
KYO Search Partners does four things. It runs retained executive searches for leadership roles, places permanent direct-hire talent on a placement fee, advises companies on how a role should be defined and paid before the search ever starts, and coaches candidates on how to be found. All four sit inside the same three disciplines, digital, marketing and creative, and every placement is permanent. There is no contract, temp or interim work here, and there never has been.
Which engagement fits the hire you are making?
| Engagement | Reach for it when | How it works | Who it is for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Retained Executive Search | The role is leadership, confidential, or hard enough to define that the first three candidates will not answer the question | A committed engagement, funded in stages, with the market worked systematically | Companies |
| Direct-Hire Placement | The role is already well defined and properly priced, and what you need is coverage and someone to run it | A placement fee on hire | Companies |
| Hiring Strategy & Advisory | You are not yet sure the role is scoped right, or the last search stalled and nobody knows why | Standalone advisory, or the first phase of a search | Companies |
| Candidate Coaching | You are the one looking, and good applications are going nowhere | Direct work with Kelly on your search | Individuals |
- Retained Executive Search
A committed, funded engagement for leadership and confidential roles, where the whole market gets worked systematically rather than opportunistically.
- Direct-Hire Placement
Permanent placement on a placement-fee basis for well-defined roles. No contract, no temp, no volume.
- Hiring Strategy & Advisory
Work on the role before the search: what it is really accountable for, who delivers that, and what the market pays for it.
- Candidate Coaching
Coaching on resume, LinkedIn, network, applicant tracking systems and using AI in a search, for people in digital, marketing and creative.
What do all four have in common?
The same person does the work. Kelly runs every engagement herself, which is the whole point of a boutique. Modern tooling handles the breadth: market mapping, sourcing at scale, the first pass through the noise. Judgment stays human, because that is the part that decides whether a hire works. The conversations, the references and the read on whether someone will thrive in your particular room are not delegated to a coordinator you will never meet.
Who does KYO work with?
Companies of roughly 100 to 1,000 people with in-house marketing, digital and creative teams. HR exists at that size. A dedicated talent function usually does not, so a senior search lands on a CMO, a VP of Marketing, a marketing director or an in-house creative director who already has a full-time job. That is the gap KYO fills. The firm works with companies that hire creative and marketing people, rather than agencies and studios that sell creative work.
What does KYO not do?
- 01Contract, temporary, temp-to-perm or interim cover. Permanent, direct-hire only.
- 02Volume hiring and outsourced recruitment functions.
- 03Circulating your resume anywhere without your explicit yes.
- 04Taking an engagement Kelly does not believe is winnable at the brief and the budget on the table.
- 05Filling the requisition in front of her when the requisition is the actual problem.
How does an engagement start?
With a conversation about the role rather than a contract. What is this person accountable for twelve months out, what does the rest of the team already cover, what has been tried, and what has the market said back so far. Most of the time that conversation changes something about the brief. Occasionally it ends with the honest answer that a search is not what the situation needs, which is a cheaper thing to hear at the start than three months in.
Start a search
Start a search
Tell Kelly what the role is meant to do, and the conversation will start there.
kelly.yosten@kyosearchpartners.comCommon Questions
Can you engage the advisory work without committing to a search?
- Yes. Hiring strategy and advisory is a standalone engagement. It often leads to a search, and it sometimes leads to the conclusion that you do not need one, which is a legitimate outcome.
Do you work outside digital, marketing and creative?
- No. The value here is depth in three disciplines rather than coverage of all of them. If a role sits outside that, you will be told so rather than taken on.
Are you able to help with contract or interim cover?
- No. KYO is permanent and direct-hire only. If interim cover is genuinely what the situation needs, Kelly will say so.
Do you work with candidates and companies at the same time?
- Yes, and the two sides are kept properly separate. A candidate is never submitted anywhere without their explicit agreement, and coaching a candidate does not put them into a client process by default.