Brands and ad agencies are hiring more fractional executives beyond chief marketers—a role that’s recently been high in demand—to fill in for full-time positions they’ve cut amid the slowing economy, including strategy heads, creative leads and chief diversity, equity and inclusion officers.

“It’s not just CMOs anymore,” said Tony Stanol, president of industry recruiting firm Global Recruiters of Sarasota. “They come from strategy, business development, production and even talent. A quick search of my own database resulted in 64 individuals with the word ‘fractional’ in my notes or their resumes—either been there or want that.”

Read also: The rise of the 'Fractional CMO'

Stanol added he was skeptical of the term “fractional,” which at first was being interchanged with “consultant,” but it does seem an increasing number of executives are in fact working in a fractional capacity versus as an external partner. Companies hire fractional executives on a part-time basis—anywhere from six months to three years—to fill gaps in their leadership. These executives typically juggle a few roles at once.

“Consultant is a vendor from a separate entity, but a fractional executive is an extension of an internal team, responsible for outcomes and has a hand in the operations,” Stanol explained.

Eli Pakier, former executive director of strategy for Bloomberg and ex-VP and head of strategy for Publicis Groupe agency MRY, is one such professional who's been expanding into new areas as a fractional executive. 

He first branched off on his own to do consulting and freelance work in 2019 but increasingly started to see requests for fractional chief marketing officer roles in 2020. Pakier holds that role for companies such as investment advisory firm Wealthspring Capital, private credit investment firm Partners for Growth and investment advisory firm Sage Mountain.

But his remit has expanded to also include fractional head of strategy roles for boutique ad agencies including Chandelier Creative, Badger Agency and Beautiful Destinations.

Also read: Ad salaries are coming down

Pakier said that while there are still currently more opportunities for fractional chief marketing officers, there is also an increasing appetite for fractional strategy leads. In that role, he said he’s helping provide small agencies with strategic insights through heavy pitching periods, the onboarding of new clients and big campaigns.

“I’m there to help them figure out their pitch story, take on deeper projects, mentor the team,” Pakier said. “It’s upstreaming of the agency model where our jobs have gotten more complicated. We need a lot more diverse thinkers, people, backgrounds.”

He takes on two to four fractional roles at once and said at times he’s been able to double the salary he was earning as a full-time executive. Like most fractional contracts, Pakier typically signs an initial six- to nine-month agreement with the option to extend.

“I like the variety of challenges,” Pakier added. “I was never the one to stick with a single client or category for an entire career.”

The companies hiring fractional executives see it as allowing for “greater flexibility and speed,” said John Riordan, managing director and head of business development and investor relations, Partners for Growth, where Pakier has created and led its marketing and brand strategy.

Inside the roles being fractionalized

The roles that are being fractionalized are ones that are typically cut during a downturn. Many companies, especially mid-sized and small businesses and those in the pressured tech space right now, are only able to hire an executive on a fractional basis for a fraction of the cost of a full-time executive.

The industry has undergone mass layoffs recently amid rising inflation and, with marketing budgets down, ad agencies have been working with much leaner teams, claiming they’re unable to properly staff up.

Read more: Understaffed media agencies spark 'terrible mess'

Liz Moskow is a former chef and culinary strategy director for marketing consultancy Sterling-Rice Group who started working as a fractional chief strategy officer last year when the economy started to slow.

“Working internally you often get pigeonholed, and if you rise to CSO, that might be the first role that gets cut when companies are downsizing,” Moskow said. “Boards don’t always understand the CSO role. They think the CEOs should have the strategy chops. When I saw chief marketing officers working in a fractional way, I said I don’t see why I can’t do that with strategy. It’s the easiest thing to fractionalize. Chief strategy officers don’t have day-to-day tasks in terms of deliverables.”

Moskow now takes on about four partners at a time, signing six-month contracts (with the option to get out in three months if it’s not working), dedicating typically about nine to 10 hours a week to each client.

“I’m working very efficiently, they’re paying for what they need,” Moskow said, adding that fractional roles work particularly well for the strategy discipline because being able to take a step back and assess what’s going on in the outside world, versus working in a bubble where “you’re so hyper-focused on what’s inside,” yields better insights.

Diversity, equity and inclusion roles are also being increasingly fractionalized.

While many companies have realized that DE&I is imperative to driving business growth, there are still some that look to cut those initiatives first in a downturn. According to a recent 2023 Monster Work Watch Report, 11% of employers reported DE&I programs are the first to go when they are forced to cut costs.

Also read: Law firm CMOs take on more diversity responsibilities

Hiring a fractional chief DE&I officer could be at least one way to salvage some of those programs.

Elaine Marino, former VP of diversity and inclusion for financial firm Charles Schwab, was looking for a new role after parting ways with the company in July 2021. She declined to talk about the nature of her departure from Charles Schwab.

What she found was a lot of companies wanted to hire a senior DE&I executive but were not willing to take on the expense.

“Especially in the tech sector, DE&I roles are being cut or demoted,” she said.

Marino said about a year ago she started being offered fractional DE&I roles and has since fully transitioned into taking on fractional roles, though she declined to name any of her clients due to confidentiality agreements. She did say her clients include fintech firms and boutique ad agencies.

All of Marino’s clients are smaller organizations. She said this type of fractional DE&I role works well for them, but larger companies really should have dedicated internal departments.

“If you are a large, multinational organization, you absolutely should have a department dedicated to this,” Marino said. “There is too much work to be done. If you are a mid-sized organization, and this is important to you as a leader and you can’t afford to hire someone full-time, this is a really good option for still getting the work done as you grow your business.”

Marino works with four to five organizations at a time, depending on what phase of the partnership they’re in. 

The first steps of the partnership are more hands-on. She said she’s doing internal assessments and reporting of diversity data. At the tail end, Marino said she’s usually clocking a few hours a week with a company to continue providing advice on key DE&I issues, including for mitigating a DE&I crisis, internally or externally, and preparing a response plan should one occur.

Her contracts typically last around six months, as well.

Also read: U.S. ad employment suffers biggest drop in two years

Chris Perkins, president of independent ad agency Model B, said his company has been hiring more workers on a fractional basis to staff up for new business. He said the workers sign contracts for initially the new business pitch, for whatever timeframe the marketer gives in the brief, and then if they win, they come on for as long as the client contract is for.

“We definitely tap into people on a contract basis,” Perkins said. “Whether it’s brand strategists or creatives with a specific expertise. There are so many highly talented people not in traditional roles now.”

Perkins added that it helps save the agency from having to do layoffs when they lose an account, which is the nature of the ad business, or struggle to staff up when they suddenly win new business because they have a pool of vetted professionals who want to work on a fractional basis and who Model B taps into as soon as a pitch lands.

“You pitch it, you win it, you run it,” Perkins said. “There are no false promises. It gives us a chance to try them on and it gives them a chance to try us on.”

Hurdles to working fractionally

Of course, fractional jobs are not for everyone and they do come with some headaches.

Perkins first became a board member for Model B in December 2021, before he was hired as president in February. He said while he was a board member he and the agency discussed different roles he could take on and a managing-type fractional position was considered.

In the end, Perkins and Model B decided they needed him in a full-time position to truly drive growth for the company as it looks to modernize its business including by expanding its Blueprint media planning, buying and analytics software.

“We decided together that that was the right path six weeks ago,” Perkins said.

Pakier said to be a fractional executive means having to be OK with not having very clear directions.

“This is the inherent challenge,” Pakier said. “[Fractional execs are] coming in because [clients] don’t know what they need. If they knew what they needed, they could hire the exact role. It’s really about embracing the ambiguity and accepting the fact that your job is to work with very little direction. There’s a bit of a leap of faith.”

Assessing whether a partnership is right can also be a challenge.

Marino said within the DE&I space, she has to watch out for companies looking to hire her because they’re being forced by some key stakeholder or if they’re doing it just to check a box.

“I look out for a few things. Who am I reporting to and do I believe we’re going to have a good relationship?” she said. “If there’s no budget, support, no employees to liaison with, that is where I say ‘no.’"

Beth Reilly has been working as a fractional marketing and strategy executive for the past nine years, before the term was even coined. She’s recently held a one-year stint as the head of media strategy, planning and partnerships for Live Nation Concerts as well as a two-year stint as the head of media and brand integration for Sprint, among various others.

“I had recently left a role without a new opportunity and I wanted to take on something to keep me busy until I found my next great gig,” Reilly said. “It just blossomed from there and I kept getting calls for help. Many started as short-term (‘can you do this for six weeks?’) and then ended up running for two years.”

Having extensive experience working in fractional roles, she’s seen some of the red flags to watch out for in contracts.

“Watch out for potential employers overpromising on contracts,” Reilly advised. “Make sure you have a clear statement of work and deliverables and build in a mutual ‘out’ clause that gives you and the employer some cushion if things aren't going as planned.”

Pakier said he’s leaned on certain freelance networks including Area of Expertise and some dedicated Slack channels to source business or connect with other fractional executives, two areas that were particularly difficult for him when he was starting out.

Industry recruiter Lauren Lotka, founder of talent firm Lotka&Co, is in the process of partnering with freelance platforms—such as Mixing Board, a community of communications and brand marketers, and Neol, another creative community—to create a network for ad industry executives seeking fractional roles specifically, as she’s seeing interest to work in this capacity from “thousands” of professionals.

She said the network will connect businesses with these professionals for hiring opportunities, but it will also bring together all these fractional executives to network and help each other out.

“Part of the bridge we see is to create more cross-collaboration between these people,” Lotka said. “Maybe you don’t have legal or consulting support, or you don’t know who to call when you have an operational headache. Now you have somewhere to go if you have a problem.”

Lotka said she’s not necessarily seeing as much interest from companies to hire these professionals as there is demand to work in a fractional capacity, yet.

“The talent pool is growing faster than the demand is at this moment,” Lotka said. “But I see that changing over the next year. The world is changing. There is a very, very strong desire to find new ways of working.”