CMOs, facing a rise in redundancies and consolidation across industries, are looking to more flexible work roles.
This has given rise to the fractional CMO, who say working on a project basis can be more flexible and rewarding.
However, recruiters say companies aren’t adapting to this trend fast enough.
Tumbleturn partner Sarah Baskerville told AdNews that the industry is in an awkward transition where experienced marketers are reinventing themselves faster than corporates are adapting.
“The marketing redundancy wave has created a surge of fractional CMOs in Australia, but the opportunities aren't yet keeping pace,” said Baskerville.
“Australia is three to five years behind the US and UK, where bringing in part-time senior executives has become standard practice. Here, we're still explaining what "fractional" means in the context of the business.
“Corporates have more access now than ever to executive-level marketing expertise at a fraction of traditional costs, yet we largely remain locked into conventional hiring models.
“As Australian companies catch up to what's being proven overseas, this imbalance will shift.”
SEAM founder and fractional CMO Dwayne Birtles has experience across TripADeal, Flight Centre Travel Group and NewsCorp.
Founding his company SEAM, he said that the work he does with clients is rewarding and commercially impactful.
He said he begins his day-to-day work by looking at the results from the day before and the week before, comparing them against the prior week, prior month, and prior year.
“I do this for all my clients as a daily health check across sales, operations, channel traffic, and conversion performance. It keeps me close to the numbers and helps identify shifts before they become issues,” Birtles said.
“From there, my day moves between strategy, sales, operations, and data, helping leadership teams connect everything that drives commercial performance.
“The rhythm is similar to when I was a full-time CMO at TripADeal or leading marketing at Flight Centre, but now I apply that focus across multiple businesses. The days are full, structured, and fast-paced.”
Birtles work has come mostly through referrals and companies discovering his work.
“Whether they’re PE-backed or founder-led, many can’t justify another full-time $400K plus CMO with all the overheads for the larger businesses, and definitely not for the smaller ones,” Birtles said.
“The industry has been tough, with large rounds of redundancies and businesses under pressure. Doing this kind of work isn’t for everyone. You have to ride the highs and be prepared for the troughs, but the independence and impact make it worth it.”
JLF fractional CMO Janice Lee-Fu splits her work across strategic advisory, business growth, and interim executive appointments, practicing academic at Monash University and supporting industry business roundtables and executive training sessions.
She said that CMO’s are expected to have deep expertise in the domain where the client is looking for a problem to be solved.
“You're expected to be an agile expert leader to move at pace, onboard and drive change and outcomes quickly without the legacy of internal politics or bias,” Lee-Fu said.
“The ability to align executive teams, boards, and investors on the strategy, resource needs, and investment journey and executing through the business with existing or building teams and resourcing.”
Lee-Fu said that companies have exponential demand for plug-and-play executive expertise.
“You write your own playbook, which is innovative and agile. This demands high autonomy and a calculated tolerance for ambiguity, contrasting sharply with traditional corporate governance,” she said.
Birtles said that the modern CMO is expected to do a lot more than brand and advertising, including connect marketing with sales, operations, and data, and balance instinct, experience and analysis.
“A big part of the job today is justifying marketing as a growth centre, not a cost centre,” he said.
“That can only happen when a CMO is deeply grounded in being able to clearly articulate the ROI of marketing activity to the board and business owners.
“It’s about connecting the dots between brand, performance, and commercial impact. Strategy is useless if it doesn’t drive measurable outcomes.”
Lucidity director Leah Grinter experience has ranged from working with the Werribee Open Range Zoo, Melbourne Aquarium and Thirsty Camel Bottleshops.
Her work as a fractional CMO includes running strategy workshops or training sessions, developing marketing or communications strategies, planning and executing campaign media buys, mentoring, and more.
Grinter said there is a clear trend in AI transforming how we plan, create and measure marketing.
“I’m also noticing a positive shift back to the importance of content marketing, especially in the B2B sector,” Grinter said.
“After a period of moving away from content over the past decade, businesses are recognising that content still does the heavy lifting when it comes to building trust and driving conversions.
“Video is at the forefront of this shift, but it’s no longer about polished, overproduced productions from five years ago; rather, authentic, insight-led, short-form storytelling is now showcasing real people and expertise front and centre.”
Grinter said that there is a shift towards full-funnel attribution modelling.
“Instead of looking at channels in isolation, good marketers and businesses are starting to measure cross-channels to understand how brand and performance work together to drive growth,” she said.
“There’s also a welcome emphasis on commercial accountability, no longer considered the ‘cut and paste department’, marketing is being viewed as an essential part of a business’s growth strategy, aligning sales, product and customer experience to deliver optimal outcomes.
“CMOs today need to be just as comfortable in a boardroom or developing strategy as they are working in a CRM dashboard, content calendar, or ads manager.”
As the requirements of the fractional CMO start to shift, so does the importance of maintaining the transferrable skills necessary to keep up with the change.
"The current redundancy crisis is forcing important conversations about sustainable marketing leadership, and a silver lining is emerging to reimagine the model," Baskerville said.
“The CMO function has become so diverse that it's increasingly rare to find the unicorn who's equally strong strategically as they are operationally.
"Interestingly with this in mind we're seeing more fractional "CMOs supplementing rather than replacing roles to stretch the skills needed to succeed across this hugely diverse remit.”
Baskerville sees the fractional CMO role as attractive in its opportunities to focus on craft and skill rather than job security.
“Australian CMOs have the shortest average tenure in the world at just 2.1 years,” Baskerville said.
“When you layer in the complexity residing in the hands of a CMO alongside the perpetual pressure of potentially being on your way in 24 months regardless of performance controlling your own calendar starts looking pretty attractive.
“Particularly for marketers that want to focus on their craft rather than be consumed in the corporate churn.”
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