Fractional leadership · Marketing
A senior marketing leader embedded part-time. The fractional CMO owns the marketing strategy, the plan, the budget and the team, sits in your leadership meetings, and is accountable for decisions rather than recommendations. The engagement is built to end in a permanent hire who inherits a working function.
For founder-led startups and Series A through Series C companies whose marketing has outgrown the founder but does not yet justify a full-time CMO.
Recognise the moment
Six signals that the gap is leadership rather than activity.
Marketing still reports to the founder because nobody senior owns it.
Founder or CEO
Agencies, freelancers and in-house staff are working from different priorities.
Marketing leader
The board has asked for a marketing plan, a budget and a reporting model.
Investor or board member
A launch, funding round or U.S. market entry needs one accountable go-to-market lead.
Founder or CEO
Your CMO has left and the function needs continuity before the next hire.
Investor or board member
Spend is rising and nobody can say which channels are working.
Founder or CEO
How to engage
Start with a decision, or start with ownership. Terms are set per engagement.
A defined decision needs resolving: positioning, a go-to-market plan, or a budget the board will accept.
You leave with priorities, owners, sequencing and an operating plan your team can run.
The function needs an owner, not a document.
A senior leader joins the leadership cadence, owns the plan and the budget, and directs the internal and external team.
Operating model
One leader connects the business plan to positioning, budget and channels, people and partners, and measurement.
Positioning
Go-to-market plan
Category and competitive direction
Team structure and hiring
Agency and freelancer direction
Sales and product alignment
Led by Justin KraftBudget and channel decisions
Planning and launch oversight
Documented playbooks
Measurement framework
Board and investor reporting
Permanent-hire preparation
The Cast Method
Leadership alignment: priorities, owners, budget and measures agreed before the work starts.
Coordinated execution: the team, agencies and Cast specialists working one plan.
Operating maturity: a function that reports, learns and is ready to hand over.
Leadership cadence
What embedded leadership looks like once it is running.
Seat in the leadership meeting
Team and agency priorities
Blockers cleared or escalated
Budget and channel review
Pipeline contribution report
Plan adjustments with owners
Board and investor marketing update
Quarterly plan reset
Hiring and capability review
Leadership and delivery
The fractional CMO directs everyone already doing the work, and brings Cast specialists only where the plan needs them.
Sets the plan and the priorities
Writes the briefs
Judges the work against the plan
Reports to the leadership team and board
Delivers, against the leader's plan
Internal team
Executes day to day, reporting into one owner.
Current agencies
Kept, consolidated or re-briefed against the plan.
Cast specialists
PR, creator, influencer and content, when the plan calls for it.
Sales
Pipeline targets and messaging agreed together.
Product
Launch timing and positioning aligned at source.
Relevant proof
The role stated is the role Cast played. Agency work is not relabelled as fractional CMO work.
Senior operators
The lead is named for each engagement. Other senior team members lead or support depending on fit, and nobody is swapped out after the pitch.
Jerry Griffin
Senior PR Consultant
Leah Taylor
Fractional PR/Comms lead
Nora Murray
Media Training Consultant
Lynn Trono
Media Relations + Crisis Communications Advisor
Founder-led startups and Series A to C companies
A plan, a budget and a team that need one owner
Leadership willing to give the role real decision rights
A permanent marketing hire planned eventually
Execution capacity for a strategy someone else owns
Recruiting or executive search
An indefinite arrangement; the goal is a handover
A substitute for a full-time CMO when you already need one
Questions
A senior marketing leader who works part-time inside your company, owns the marketing function and is accountable for its decisions. It sits between hiring a consultant and hiring a full-time chief marketing officer.
A consultant delivers a recommendation. A fractional CMO owns the decisions, runs the cadence and carries accountability for results inside the leadership team.
Yes. Existing agencies and freelancers report into the fractional CMO and are briefed, consolidated or replaced against one plan.
Where the plan calls for it. The fractional CMO can deploy Cast specialists for PR, creator, influencer and content work, with leadership and delivery kept distinct.
We plan for it from the start. The positioning, plan, partner map and cadence are documented so the incoming leader inherits a working function.
Fractional leadership · Communications and PR
A senior communications leader embedded part-time. Cast’s fractional PR/Comms leader owns the narrative, the press function, the spokespeople and issues readiness inside your leadership rhythm, and brings PR, creator and influencer execution when the plan calls for it.
For companies whose story, press function, executive visibility or exposure has outgrown its current ownership.
Recognise the moment
Six signals that communications needs a senior owner.
The company has a public story and reputational exposure, but nobody senior owns both.
Founder or CEO
Press work is happening, but nobody sets the quality bar or the priorities.
Marketing or communications leader
Executives are being asked to speak and have not been prepared.
Founder or CEO
A regulated market, funding event or launch is coming with predictable hard questions.
Investor or board member
Your communications lead has left and the relationships left with them.
Marketing or communications leader
The board wants to know who approves a statement, and how fast.
Investor or board member
Three ownership pillars
Own the story
A message house that survives contact with reporters, sales calls and the board, and that everyone senior tells the same way.
Narrative and message house
Claim and proof matrix with named owners
Message discipline across teams
Quarterly review as the product changes
Own the function
Whether the press work is in-house, agency-run or both, one senior person owns the calendar, the quality bar and the relationships.
Agency oversight and brief-setting
Editorial calendar and moment planning
Media relationships at senior level
Coverage reporting with the boundary stated
Own the risk
Most reputational damage comes from being unprepared for a predictable question, not from being ambushed.
Spokesperson development and preparation
Issues register and prepared positions
Escalation paths agreed in advance
Internal and executive communications
How to engage
Leadership and delivery are scoped separately. Terms are set per engagement.
The story or the press function needs resetting before a dated moment.
An agreed narrative, message house, spokesperson roles and an operating plan for the press function.
Communications needs a senior owner inside the leadership cadence.
One leader owns the narrative, the calendar, the spokespeople and the escalation path.
The plan needs press, creator or influencer delivery behind it.
The leader sets direction and deploys Cast specialists, with leadership and delivery kept distinct.
Operating model
The narrative sits at the centre. Evidence and approvals are the foundation. Issues readiness runs alongside.
One defensible narrative
Owned by the communications lead
Led by Leah TaylorFlows to
Executives
Spokesperson roles and prepared positions
Press
Earned media and analyst relationships
Creators and influencers
Briefs that carry the claim and its limits
Owned channels
Site, newsletter, social and executive content
Customers
Proof they can repeat in their own words
Internal teams
One version for sales, support and staff
Leadership cadence
What the leader owns once the function is running, and when the stakes rise.
Seat in the leadership meeting
Press and agency priorities
Spokesperson preparation
Coverage and message pull-through
Editorial calendar review
Issues register update
Narrative review as the product changes
Board communications update
Capability and hiring review
Statement approval inside the agreed window
Briefing before every interview
Escalation run from the prepared path
Leadership and delivery
The leader decides. Specialists deliver. The two are scoped and reported separately.
Narrative and message house
Spokesperson roles and approvals
Priorities for press, creator and influencer work
Escalation and issues decisions
Delivers, against the leader's plan
Press execution
Pitching, materials, media relationships and rapid response.
Creator and influencer
Brand-side campaigns: sourcing, vetting, briefs, contracts and measurement.
Content and executive visibility
Bylines, podcasts and owned thought leadership.
Monitoring and reporting
Coverage, pull-through and share of voice, with boundaries stated.
Relevant proof
Grouped by the communications problem each engagement demonstrates. Scope and evidence boundary stated on every one.
Senior operators
The lead is named for each engagement. Other senior team members lead or support depending on fit, and nobody is swapped out after the pitch.
Jerry Griffin
Senior PR Consultant
Justin Kraft
Fractional CMO and Comms leader
Nora Murray
Media Training Consultant
Lynn Trono
Media Relations + Crisis Communications Advisor
A senior communications leader embedded part-time. The fractional Head of Communications owns the narrative, the press function, the spokespeople and the issues readiness, working inside your leadership rhythm. It suits companies with something to say and exposure to manage, but nobody senior owning how either is handled.
A message house that survives contact with reporters, sales calls and the board, and that everyone senior tells the same way.
Whether the press work is in-house, agency-run or both, one senior person owns the calendar, the quality bar and the relationships.
Most reputational damage comes from being unprepared for a predictable question, not from being ambushed.
A fractional lead is not a crisis retainer. We agree in advance what falls inside the engagement and what would need a dedicated response, and we say so rather than absorbing it quietly.
