About

Stepping Stone Strategies was founded in 2018 by its principal, Brad Fay, to provide expert strategy consulting, analytics, communications, and marketing services to businesses, non-profits, advocacy groups, and government agencies.  The firm takes its name from the 200-year-old home where Brad lives with his wife, Jacqueline Fay, in the small village of Griggstown, on the outskirts of Princeton, New Jersey. 

Stepping Stone Strategies helps clients find pathways forward, drawing on three decades of experience in marketing, data and analytics, public policy, and non-profit development.  The firm’s value proposition is a keen ability to turn analytical insights into effective marketing and communications strategies and programs to drive business growth and change.

Brad Fay, President

A nationally-known marketing expert and author, Brad Fay is the Founder and President of Stepping Stone Strategies. He brings to the firm a wealth of experience as a leader and strategist in business, government, advocacy groups, and not-for-profits. 

Brad is the co-author of The Face-to-Face Book: Why Real Relationships Rule in a Digital Marketplace, an award-winning book published in 2012 by the Free Press imprint of Simon & Schuster.  He also shares screenwriting credit on a 2018 documentary film, Farming in the Millstone Valley: Past & Present. He has been quoted as an expert in social marketing and influence in the New York Times, and in Hillary Clinton’s bestseller, What Happened.

Brad is co-founder of the Keller Fay Group, a data and analytics company in New Brunswick, NJ focused on social media and consumer influence, acquired in 2015 by Engagement Labs, a Canadian public company. First as chief operating officer and later as chief commercial officer, Brad led the development of the firm’s TalkTrack® and TotalSocial® products, for which he won the Grand Innovation Award of the Advertising Research Foundation. TotalSocial combines social media data about brands with survey research data about consumer’s offline conversations and brand recommendations. TotalSocial data have been shown to drive 19% of consumer purchases.  Brad continues to serve as a part-time consultant to Engagement Labs.

Brad is an experienced leader of non-profits and trade associations.  He is currently Board President of the Millstone Valley Preservation Coalition, which is the sponsor of the Millstone Valley National Scenic Byway in the central New Jersey counties of Somerset, Mercer, and Middlesex.  He is past President of the Van Harlingen Historical Society of Montgomery, NJ.  He also served as Board Chairman of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association, now part of the Association of National Advertisers, and he is a past President of the Market Research Council of New York, NY.

Brad holds political science degrees from Colby College (BA) and the University of Connecticut (MA), and was elected to the Montgomery, NJ Township Committee, serving four years, including one as deputy mayor. He continues to be active in advocating for historic and environmental preservation in central New Jersey.