EVENT MARKETING LEADERSHIP
Senior marketing leadership, without the permanent hire.
We step in as your Head of Marketing or the senior commercial oversight your portfolio's been missing for the weeks, months or years that make sense, not the decade you'd commit to with a full-time appointment. Strategy, systems, team development and commercial accountability, owned end-to-end.
Most event-led businesses don't need another freelancer, and they don't need another agency on retainer. They need a senior specialist partner who understands the commercial pressure of a launch week, and can flex between strategic direction and hands-on delivery as the cycle demands. That's what we're built for. Every engagement is led by a senior consultant who owns the number, supported by the right specialist depth — CRM, paid, content, sponsor sales — for the work in front of you.
WHEN IT FITS
Leadership is usually the right engagement when…
The gap
Your marketing lead has left, the search is going to take three to six months, and you can't let the flagship cycle drift while you're in recruitment.
The step-up
Your team has outgrown its current leadership structure. The day-to-day is running, but strategic direction, commercial reporting, and senior oversight are missing, and the CEO is feeling it.
The reset
A flagship event's commercial performance has slipped. You need senior marketing direction to diagnose what's happening, reshape the approach, and lead the team through the next edition.
WHAT'S INCLUDED
Senior ownership of the marketing function, for as long as it's useful.
Every Leadership engagement is tailored to the situation, but most cover the same five areas. The difference is depth and duration. A three-month reset looks different from a year-long embedded leadership role. We scope the specifics in the first conversation.
Strategy & commercial planning
Portfolio strategy, edition-over-edition growth plans, commercial targets by revenue stream, pricing and positioning reviews. The strategic view the team needs to hang the year's work on.
Team leadership
Line management of the marketing team (where relevant). Hiring, development, 1:1s, performance reviews, escalation management. If you've got a marketing manager who needs someone senior to grow into, that person is us.
Agency and partner oversight
Brief management, supplier reviews, contract and fee negotiation, integration across paid media, PR, creative, and tech vendors. We stop you paying three agencies to do versions of the same thing.
Commercial reporting and forecasting
Weekly pipeline reporting, monthly commercial dashboards, edition post-mortems with honest diagnosis. The numbers you take to the board — built, maintained, and interpreted.
Board and stakeholder representation
Representing marketing in senior commercial conversations — with the CEO, the sales director, the sponsor team, the investor if relevant. Marketing getting heard at the level it should be.
HOW IT WORKS
TYPICAL
COMMITTMENT
Two to four days a week, for three to twelve months. Shorter for targeted resets, longer for full embedded leadership through a cycle.
HOW WE
INTERGRATE
Inside your tools, your Slack, your CRM, your meeting cadence. A senior consultant you introduce as "our Head of Marketing" — because in the window, that's what we are.
WHAT WE
REPORT
A weekly commercial pipeline view for you, a monthly leadership dashboard for the CEO or board, and an end-of-engagement handover document.
HOW IT
ENDS
Cleanly. A planned handover to a permanent hire we've helped recruit, a transition to lighter advisory, or a defined finish when the goal is met.
Senior ownership of the marketing function, for as long as it's useful.
Built around your cycle, not a fixed retainer model.
COMMON QUESTIONS
What organisers usually ask before booking a Leadership engagement
​How is this different from hiring a fractional CMO from elsewhere?
Most fractional CMO networks are general-purpose marketing leaders placed into whatever industry needs them. We do only event-led businesses. The depth of understanding of delegate acquisition, sponsor pipelines, rebook economics and event-cycle pressures is the difference — and it's a material one.
Do you work with our existing agencies?
Yes. Most Leadership engagements inherit an existing agency roster. We'll review it in the first month and recommend changes only where they're warranted — we're not incentivised to churn vendors for the sake of it.
What happens when the engagement ends?
We hand back better than we found it. That means a permanent hire identified or placed, documented systems and reporting, and where useful, a lighter ongoing advisory relationship for three to six months of transition.
What if we decide partway through that we need a permanent hire instead?
That's usually the ideal outcome; we're not trying to hold the role indefinitely. We'll help you write the brief, shortlist candidates, run the process, and hand over cleanly when they start. A cancellation fee will apply.
What happens when the engagement ends?
We hand back better than we found it. That means a permanent hire identified or placed, documented systems and reporting, and where useful, a lighter ongoing advisory relationship for three to six months of transition.