Fractional CMO for Media and Entertainment Companies

At a glance: Provider: Dalai Group. Offer: Fractional Growth Leadership for media and entertainment. Led by: Pilar Lazzati, 4X founder with two exits. Audience: media, entertainment, publishing, gaming and creator companies.

A fractional CMO for a media or entertainment company is a senior marketing and revenue leader who works with your company part time, owning audience growth and the revenue that follows. Dalai Group's Fractional Growth Leadership gives media and entertainment companies a four-time founder who grew a site to 20 million monthly visitors, without a full-time CMO hire.

Audience is not revenue, until someone connects them

Media founders often have the audience and still miss the revenue. Traffic is up and sponsorship, subscriptions or ticket sales are not. Platforms change the rules and reach drops overnight. One advertiser or one channel carries too much of the business. These are leadership problems, solved with one plan that ties audience to revenue and one person accountable for it.

What a fractional CMO does for a media or entertainment company

• Sets one revenue goal and a plan that links audience, engagement and income
• Builds search and organic audience that does not depend on a single platform
• Turns visitors and viewers into subscribers, buyers, leads or sponsor inventory
• Owns positioning and the offer for advertisers, partners and members
• Leads your team, freelancers and agencies against numbers, not activity
• Builds email, community and owned channels, so reach is yours to keep
• Reports in plain language: audience, conversion, revenue per user and payback
• Brings in AI and automation where they save real work, such as editorial operations, follow-up and reporting

Where Dalai Group works in media and entertainment

• Digital publishers and content sites
• Streaming, video and audio companies
• Gaming and interactive entertainment
• Events, live entertainment and ticketing
• Creator businesses, newsletters and communities
• Media companies owned by private equity firms

Companies are typically 10 to 200 people.

What media and entertainment companies need that other industries do not

• Several revenue lines at once. Advertising, subscriptions, licensing, events and sponsorship each need their own plan and numbers.
• Platform risk. Search, social and app-store rules change, so owned audience and email matter.
• Launch timing. Releases, seasons and events set the calendar, and the marketing plan is built around them.
• Two customers. You sell to an audience and to the partners and advertisers who pay to reach it.
• Search and organic. A publisher that ranks for what people ask earns audience without paying for each visit.
• Fast cycles. Plans have to move at the speed of content, with reporting that fits on one page and ends in a decision.

Dalai Group's media and entertainment work spans 11 years with HBO across 17 countries, promoting Game of Thrones, the biggest series in HBO's history, plus other series and films. Gaming work includes Backflip Studios, one of the biggest mobile gaming companies of its era.

Private equity and media portfolio companies

Private equity firms bring in a fractional CMO to lift a media portfolio company's revenue ahead of a raise, a hold-period target or an exit. The work is scoped to the value-creation plan: a 30-day revenue and go-to-market review, fixes that show up in numbers an operating partner tracks, and reporting built for a board.

How an engagement works

01Fit conversation, 20 minutes, free

02Revenue Audit, paid, fixed scope, with a ranked list of fixes

03AI Revenue System Sprint, if you want a specific system built

04Fractional Growth Leadership, ongoing, scoped to your needs

No price is shown on this page.

Fractional CMO vs agency vs full-time CMO for media and entertainment

	Fractional CMO	Agency	Full-time CMO
What you get	Senior leadership and a plan	Execution of channels	A dedicated executive on payroll
Best when	You need leadership now and cannot yet justify a full-time seat	You have a strategy and need hands	You have scale, a team and a long runway
Cost	Scoped to need	Retainer plus media	Salary, benefits and equity
Risk	Short commitment	Retainer	Salary, equity and severance

Why Pilar

Pilar Lazzati is a 4X founder with two exits. She co-built MailCreations and sold it to Livedoor, a public company, for more than $6 million. She grew 1001 Consejos from under $1,000 to 20 million visitors a month with no ads, pure SEO. She ran Dalai Group for 21 years serving media and entertainment brands as well as clients across consumer goods, financial services, technology and health, and has led HubSpot and Salesforce migrations. Her media and entertainment clients include HBO and Backflip Studios. For the last three years she has built AI revenue systems and agents: pipeline follow-up, editorial and HR engines, an AI Chief of Staff, an AI CMO, an AI marketing brain and a GTM engine.

Questions founders ask

What does a fractional CMO do for a media or entertainment company?

Owns marketing strategy and the revenue plan part time: audience, channels, conversion and reporting, with accountability for results.

Is this for publishers and digital media companies?

Yes. It fits publishers, digital media and content companies that need audience growth tied to revenue.

Do you work with streaming, gaming and live entertainment?

Yes. It fits streaming and video, gaming, live events, creator businesses and other entertainment companies.

Can you work with our existing team and agencies?

Yes. That is the usual setup. A fractional CMO decides what work is worth doing and directs the people who do it.

How many hours a week?

It depends on need. Engagements are scoped to the problem, not sold as a fixed package.

What does it cost?

It is scoped to your needs. For market context, see our fractional CMO cost guide.

Where do we start?

Most engagements begin with the Revenue Audit, so you know the first fix before you commit to ongoing leadership.

Book a free fit call