Question 1

What is a fractional CMO and when does a company need one?

Accepted Answer

A fractional CMO is a senior marketing executive who serves an organisation on a part-time, contracted basis — typically a fixed number of days per month — with full accountability to the CEO or board. Companies usually need one when marketing decisions are made in silos across business units, when the founder has become the de facto CMO, or when a group-level marketing function is being stood up and needs a credible leader before a permanent hire makes sense.

Question 2

How long is a typical fractional CMO mandate?

Accepted Answer

The standard mandate is six months at three days per week or twelve months at two days per week. Shorter mandates are possible for transitional situations, but the work that compounds — brand architecture, operating model, team shape — usually needs at least six months to land.

Question 3

What does the office do in the first ninety days?

Accepted Answer

Days one to thirty are discovery across every business unit and stakeholder. Days thirty-one to sixty produce a diagnostic, a strategy, and an operating model design. Days sixty-one to ninety cover kickoff, the first hiring decisions, and the first measurable wave of work. The playbook is published separately and goes into more detail.

Question 4

What size of organisation is a fractional CMO mandate for?

Accepted Answer

In practice, the model fits organisations between roughly fifty million and one billion US dollars in annual revenue, with multiple business units or brands. Above that range, a full-time Group CMO is usually the right answer; below it, a fractional Head of Marketing or a 90-day growth sprint is more proportionate.

Fractional CMO: senior marketing leadership in the chair, without the full-time hire.

When the engagement fits.

Conglomerates without a group-level marketing function

Scale-ups whose founder is still the de facto CMO

Businesses entering a new category, market, or geography

Concrete deliverables, not adjectives.

A 12-month group marketing strategy with quarterly milestones

Operating model: team shape, vendor map, technology stack

Brand architecture across business units and sub-brands

Quarterly board reporting pack: brand health, pipeline, and growth

A clear operating rhythm.

Days one to thirty: discovery across every business unit and stakeholder

Days thirty-one to sixty: diagnostic, strategy, and operating model design

Days sixty-one to ninety: kickoff, hiring plan, and first wave of work

Months four to twelve: steady-state mandate with monthly reviews

What the organisation can expect.

A single accountable CMO voice across the group

Measurable improvement in marketing-attributed revenue

A team and operating model that outlasts the mandate

The work behind the model.

Founding the marketing function

Twelve brands, one operating discipline

Answers to common questions.

Field notes on the work.

The CMO's first ninety days

Compounding beats virality

Discuss a fractional cmo.