The safest strategy is usually

the most expensive one.

Fractional Marketing Leadership

For challenger brands looking to create
new business possibilities.

sound familiar?

You don’t need “yes people” who won’t push for bolder thinking. Or a big agency that overcharges for layers of junior talent.

You need a proven leader that helps you define a more distinct and compelling brand positioning, an identity that becomes magnetic, and marketing that breaks through to make every dollar in your budget work harder.

LET’S PROVOKE!

Your brand positioning and identity aren’t distinct enough. Marketing focuses on conventional category features and rational benefits. Safe, informative creative concepts that blend in.
Good people. Bad brief.
Your team is testing tactics, tweaking campaigns, reporting metrics. Performance marketing has been optimized to the max but still moving a minimal number of people. Tactics without a sound strategy are often expensive noise.
There’s a version of your brand that makes competitors nervous, customers loyal, and your board more confident. You know it exists. You just haven’t found the right person to help define it yet.

Executive addressing leadership team in boardroom

Bland Blends. Brave wins.

Tim Anderson

Chief Provocateur x Fractional CMO

Brands that challenge category leaders aren’t the ones with the biggest budgets. They’re the ones brave enough to stand for something the rest of the category hasn’t yet. That gap between what most brands say and what they could say isn’t a marketing clarity gap. It’s a strategic courage gap. Closing it is where I live.

I’ve spent 25+ years defining provocative marketing strategies that are more compelling to customers:

Vaulted: Reframed gold from a fear-based hedge to a culturally resonant investment. Doubled account signups in under a year. Significantly increased AUM. Improved customer lifetime value.

Intuit: Inspired shift from a house of brands to a branded house — putting the customer at the center. That strategy became the foundation for “A Giant Story,” Intuit’s first corporate campaign. Brand awareness tripled. Brand favorability improved by nearly 30 percent. Sales were 7x projected goals.

Hyundai: Partnered with Hyundai’s CMO to conceive and launch Shopper Assurance — a retail transformation program that changed how people buy cars, significantly improving brand perception and dealer traffic.

Today, I work as a fractional CMO, partnering with challenger brands ready to stop blending in.

EXECUTIVE MARKETING LEADERSHIP. MINUS THE EXECUTIVE OVERHEAD.

A full-time CMO often makes $250K–$350K a year before benefits and equity. Plus the six months it takes to find one. And what if it doesn’t work out?

Most $10M–$100M brands don’t need a full-time CMO. They need proven strategic leadership by someone who will push for stronger thinking while directing the team to hit key goals.

I embed as a strategic partner, not a vendor. Strategy moves upstream to your side of the table. Execution goes to lean independent agencies and freelancers who do top-tier work with fewer layers and markups.

Antique compass with needle glowing gold

EMBEDDED FRACTIONAL CMO

Your marketing leader, embedded part-time. Executive leadership across brand positioning, marketing campaigns and team oversight, without the full-time cost.

First: a brand positioning, identity and personality that’s clear, distinct and compelling. Then the marketing plan, KPIs and the team to deliver it.

A brand audit and positioning POV in the first 30 days. Annual, quarterly and sprint planning. I hire, mentor and direct personnel, vendors and contractors. If things aren’t working, I fix it. Short-term sales wins. Long-term brand equity.

Golden paper airplane breaking through a wall

BREAKTHROUGH SESSION

An all-day workshop that pressure-tests your positioning against competitors, surfaces blind spots and maps a bolder path forward.

It starts with gathering and analyzing your data and research, so the day is built around your specific situation and challenges, not a template.

You leave with a clear point of view on how your brand blends in, what to fix first, and a braver vision for the future.

Frequently Asked Questions

Founders and CEOs of mid-market brands ($10M–$100M in revenue) that want to challenge the leaders in their category through bold marketing. Consumer finance brands, like fintech, neobanks and insurtech, are a particular focus.
No. I set direction, lead planning, manage and motivate the team. If a vendor, contractor or process isn’t pulling its weight, I fix it. Also, to be clear, I’m not a one-person marketing department. It takes a team.
Within 30 days you’ll have a clear point of view on your positioning and a short-term punch list. Quick wins come early. Brand equity compounds over time. The goal is both.
With a 30-minute call. We define your biggest business challenge, then discuss how we can solve it together.