Marketing leadership

Someone senior owning the number, without hiring for it.

7 articles

Everything we have written

In Marketing the Art of War Was Never About Fighting

The Art of War has a branding problem. It tends to get adopted by people who picture themselves as the general on…

Alex BenavidesSeptember 11, 202611 min read

An image of an office unicorn to talk about the challenge organizations hit.

Marketing leadership

Most Companies Don’t Need a Unicorn Hire. They Need Transitional Leadership.

One of the most common mistakes growing companies make is trying to solve organizational problems with a single hire. The logic feels…

Alex BenavidesMay 15, 20264 min read

An AI generated image of a failure that happens in the real world too, where you build without planning and lead to nothing.

Marketing leadership

AI Is Supposed to Make Marketing Teams Faster. But faster at What?

Most companies are asking their marketing teams to use AI to increase output. More content, more campaigns, more experimentation. The expectation is…

Alex BenavidesApril 17, 20265 min read

An adorable dog in a football inspired outfit to celebrate Super Bowl LX and illustrate our point about marketing project management.

Marketing leadership

Marketers: Who Has the Ball (And Do They Need a Blocker)?

It’s Super Bowl season again, and it always seems to sneak up on me, which, as a marketer, is probably a little…

Alex BenavidesFebruary 3, 20263 min read

A photo of a weather vane to represent marketing as an input to the conditions in the market to make better business decisions.

Marketing leadership

Marketing Should Be an Input to Shaping Business Strategy.

In many organizations, strategy is treated as something that happens upstream of marketing. Leadership sets direction. Product defines the roadmap. Finance establishes…

Alex BenavidesJanuary 15, 20264 min read

The image of a salmon swimming upstream as a visual reminder that marketing should not only be part of downstream implementation, but be part of the upstream conversations to make marketing more effective.

Marketing leadership

Marketing Goes Beyond Advertising and Sales Enablement.

Marketing is often misunderstood because its most visible outputs look like advertising. Campaigns. Ads. Promotions. Launches. That visibility makes marketing easy to…

Alex BenavidesOctober 16, 20254 min read

A black and white image of a tree in a hand to represent the idea that marketing clients have limited amounts of focus, time, and other resources and we, as agencies, should care for them.

Marketing leadership

Be a Good Steward of the Marketing Resources You’re Given.

There’s a quiet expectation that sits beneath most marketing conversations. Budgets, attention, trust, and time are finite, even when they don’t feel…

Alex BenavidesSeptember 18, 20254 min read

From usSomeone senior owning the number, without hiring for it.

Fractional marketing leadership: strategy, planning and the people who run it, for companies that are not ready to hire a CMO and are past doing it themselves.

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