With a bleak economy on the horizon, organizations are looking to tighten their marketing budget. They are considering options such as bringing marketing in-house or finding the best deal in the market to maintain competitiveness.

This situation poses a significant challenge for marketing agencies, as it will have a negative impact on their bottom line. However, one agency, OtterHalf, is taking a different approach by offering fractional marketing.

To learn more about OtterHalf’s plan with fractional marketing and how it can benefit both clients and the agency, we interviewed Cassandra Ong, the founder and managing director of OtterHalf.

Cassandra candidly shares the benefits of fractional marketing, including a success story that saved their client close to $40,000, and discusses who fractional marketing is for.

Can you explain the concept of fractional marketing and how it differs from traditional marketing approaches, especially in the context of meeting the needs of businesses facing budget constraints?

Fractional marketing allows businesses to access experienced marketers on a part-time basis.
When businesses need marketing support, they either hire full-timers where performance is pegged to a certain KPI or OKR, or they hire an agency where the scope is clearly defined. Very rarely are agencies accountable for the impact they drive on the business.

Hiring a fractional marketing team can be a good middle ground if the business is looking for an experienced marketer who is accountable for their business objective, yet does not have the budget to pay him/her full-time nor know if this person can be 100% utilised if he/she joins full-time, therefore meeting the needs of businesses facing budget constraints.

In a landscape where marketing budgets are under scrutiny, you advocate for fractional marketing as a solution. What led you to recognize the significance of fractional services, and how have you seen this approach justify marketing spend in challenging economic conditions?

I founded OtterHalf to address the marketing expertise gap for Tech companies, drawn from my experience leading and growing marketing teams in the Tech industry. The concept of fractional teams caught my attention when I observed my peers based out of Singapore successfully offering their services to other companies while holding full-time jobs, showcasing expertise in specific functions.

Researching this concept in American-based publications, I wondered if fractional services could work in Asia, particularly in Singapore, where awareness was limited. To test the concept, OtterHalf engaged with REFASH, when they provided us with access to their business data, outlined clear objectives, and specified areas for growth, such as partnerships.

Aligned with REFASH’s business goals, we developed a partnership programme from scratch, sourced leads alongside the leadership team, and pitched to partners on their behalf. The result: we secured three partners (the original target was two), saving REFASH close to $40,000 in co-marketing partnerships they wouldn’t have obtained working directly with mall operators.

This successful experience validated the effectiveness of fractional marketing, demonstrating its ability to deliver tangible results and justify marketing spend, particularly in challenging economic conditions.

That “proof of concept” with REFASH gave me the confidence that fractional marketing services could work in Singapore. Not only that, having spoken to potential clients, we already have strong interest from Tech players that want to work with us mainly with the below use cases:

• Companies that do not have a marketing team – Hence, they want to leverage us to function as their marketing team. More recently, I have also seen interest from companies that are planning layoffs, with their marketing function being impacted. As such, they want to work with us to support output delivery for the marketing areas impacted. 48% of the businesses we spoke to belonged to this category.
• Companies with marketing teams consisting of generalists. They want to work with specialists to fill the gaps that they currently are not able to, as in the case of REFASH. Another 48% of the businesses we spoke to belonged to this category.
• The other 4% of the businesses wanted to work with us to provide an additional marketing boost as they recently raised capital or are going through a peak period.

REFASH’s success story with OtterHalf’s fractional marketing team is impressive. Can you share more examples of how fractional marketing has specifically helped businesses navigate challenges and achieve substantial returns on investment?

In terms of delivery output, I have only had REFASH as a Client that has successfully engaged OtterHalf to be their fractional team. However, I would think one of the main reasons why we could provide so much value in the engagement was because we were very aware of their business goals, their growth, and where they wanted to be, and we were able to almost operate like a full-time team member thinking alongside them, finding cost-efficient ways to drive growth for them, and hence delivering a higher ROI.

We have also provided our take on how hiring fractional marketing teams could be beneficial for businesses here, whether it is about being more affordable compared to hiring a full-time hire or the flexibility for businesses to scale up or down as needed, these cost management benefits could help with businesses’ ROI.

In your experience with OtterHalf, what key advantages do fractional marketing resources offer to companies with existing dedicated marketing teams? How do these resources adapt to ever-evolving business objectives?

Engaging a fractional marketing team with relevant experience expedites the onboarding process by 20X or more, providing a faster start compared to hiring and training an in-house marketing team, which can take months or even years.

Moreover, fractional marketing teams offer affordability, especially for smaller businesses with budget constraints. The average monthly cost of hiring a full-time marketing lead or team can be in a 5-digit salary range, making it challenging for early-stage companies. Fractional marketing teams allow businesses to achieve specific growth objectives based on varying budgets and constraints, offering expertise without the commitment of full-time hires. The flexibility of payment based on hours worked or deliverables produced makes this approach financially sensible for businesses, particularly SMEs.

One of the significant advantages is the flexibility to scale up or down as needed. With ever-changing marketing objectives, businesses benefit from the adaptive nature of fractional marketing teams. This model enables agile strategy pivots and efficient resource allocation, allowing companies to optimise their marketing efforts for maximum effectiveness.

Access to a team of experienced marketing professionals is a key benefit. Fractional marketing teams provide businesses with the advantage of tapping into the knowledge and expertise of external marketing experts. This access to a wider pool of talented professionals on a part-time basis gives a competitive edge, allowing companies to leverage industry experts for various aspects of their marketing function, including strategy, branding, partnerships, and performance marketing, just to name a few.

Fractional marketing teams also allow for low-stakes experimentation with new concepts. Businesses can test ideas before committing to a full-time team of experienced professionals with proven track records to bring a tried and tested concept to fruition. This flexibility is particularly valuable until a solid product-market fit is established or there’s enough work for a full-time team aligned with the business strategy.

Finally, fractional marketing teams inject fresh perspectives into campaigns. These team members, not deeply entrenched in the company’s operations, can identify areas for improvement, bringing innovation and driving continuous improvement within the company.

As someone with a background in marketing strategy and strategic partnerships, how do you see the role of fractional services evolving in the broader marketing landscape, and what potential benefits can businesses derive from this model in the long term?

Drawing from the previous answer, the key value that fractional services bring to the table is flexibility and agility. This also means fractional teams do not have to be confined to a specific employment term to be beneficial to businesses, whether it be long or short. On the role of fractional services — its very concept stems from a need to stay competitive. As such, how it is being creatively leveraged by businesses will change depending on the needs and goals of the company.

Given your experience with major brands like Tripadvisor, Chope, and Foodpanda, what are the reasons companies might still favour internal hires over fractional services, and how does OtterHalf address these concerns?

The company is not at a stage where budget is a concern.

• OtterHalf has shown through its success that even if budget is not a concern, a more efficient way to achieve a higher ROI exists in fractional services.

The company already has a leadership team with an experienced marketer who can guide them.

• Fractional teams can still work in tandem with the current experienced marketer/team to drive different initiatives

The company might not fully understand how fractional services/teams work, and view them as “external parties”, similar to freelancers.

• Fractional teams or professionals can have a long-term commitment to the company, understanding the company’s culture, goals, and processes as they work closely with the in-house team.

The concept of fractional services is relatively new in Singapore. How has the market responded to OtterHalf’s approach, and what challenges or opportunities have you encountered while introducing this model to businesses in the region?

Challenges: Introducing the concept of fractional marketing services in Singapore has posed initial challenges. Many businesses, upon hearing about OtterHalf’s services, inquire about the concept itself, leading to a need for continuous education about the model. As a relatively young business in our 9th month of operation as of December 2023, establishing trust and awareness remains a hurdle. Some businesses are inclined towards established agencies with proven track records, emphasising the importance of time to demonstrate results. We anticipate a positive shift in perceptions and outcomes in 2024.

Opportunities: Considering the potential for a U.S. recession with a 51.8% chance within the next 12 months, cost-cutting measures may extend to the Asia region. This economic climate could prompt businesses to seek more cost-efficient marketing strategies, creating opportunities for OtterHalf. The market’s increasing focus on cost-effectiveness may position our fractional services as a viable and attractive alternative.

As a founder who launched OtterHalf during a challenging time in the tech industry, can you share insights into how your personal experience with redundancy influenced the creation and mission of OtterHalf?

Having led and grown marketing teams at various companies, big and small, I have worked with a few marketing agencies. One thing I always find lacking is an agency that understands the DNA of marketing in a Tech company. For instance, the need for quick turnaround, the success metrics tech marketers measure, the need to be data-driven, just to name a few.

As such, setting up a marketing agency that specialises in driving growth for tech companies has always been on my mind – I was waiting for a good time to start (and now, as a founder, I realise that there would never be a ‘good’ time to launch a business).

When I was notified of the layoff, it impacted my entire marketing function, largely due to weak product market fit. It was nonetheless a difficult time in my career, in part due to the social stigma associated with being laid off.

People who worked with me in the past would know I love to see my team’s marketing efforts directly translating to business impact. I entertained the idea of heading back to corporate, but I also told myself “Why help one, when I can help many?”. So very quickly, I revisited the idea of setting up an agency that specialises in growing Tech companies, recruiting two of my top performers with complementary skill sets in my previous company that was also impacted by the layoff to form the founding team of OtterHalf, with a mission to bridge that marketing expertise gap in tech firms, helping them to drive sustainable growth through creativity and kickass execution.

More than that, our belief that businesses have the power to contribute to a better world is what binds us together as a founding team, hiring people and working with clients who are aligned with our beliefs and values.

Your case study mentions cost savings of almost $40K for REFASH through fractional hiring. Could you delve deeper into how this cost-efficiency is achieved and whether it’s sustainable for businesses over the long term?

For REFASH, they approached us with the understanding that their marketing team consisted mostly of generalists. They had potential partners writing in wanting to collaborate but no one in the marketing team had the expertise to drive partnerships efforts. They also wanted to increase their supply of second-hand clothing i.e. through partners, they wanted to amplify the awareness that people can send their second-hand clothing to REFASH.

We acted as their fractional partnership team, creating a partnership programme, ‘Repurposed by REFASH’, for them from the ground up, working alongside the leadership team in lead sourcing and pitching “Resale as a service” to mall operators where REFASH would work with the mall operators to drive collection/their supply.

On top of that, REFASH also committed to a certain level of marketing commitment via Google Ads, Carousell e-banners, emails, socials, and PR that would drive visibility to the programme. In exchange, they also requested a certain level of marketing commitment from the mall operators. In this case, it was the malls’ atrium space and marketing communications, which would otherwise cost them an average of 5 digits if they had gone directly to the malls to ‘rent their atrium space’ if the partnership programme was not in place.

Eventually, while the target for OtterHalf was to secure 2 partners for the REFASH team, we managed to secure 3 partners for them, up to the contract stage, saving them close to $40,000, more than 3 times the ROI from this engagement. The entire process of partner programme development, lead sourcing alongside the REFASH team, pitching on behalf of the REFASH team, and eventually securing 3 partners for them took 3 months.

Through this engagement, we created a partnership playbook for the marketing team to emulate, so they can use the same process to secure partners in future. Part of the reason why REFASH decided to work with us was because they wanted to explore a cost-efficient way of marketing that is different from the typical ads and social media marketing that most agencies offer. After comparing the results from partnership marketing, versus other marketing channels, it was an engagement that yielded tangible impact and was sustainable because it could yield even more given the partnership playbook that we put together for them.

OtterHalf has been accepted into the SMU Business Innovations Generator Incubation Programme. How has this recognition and support impacted the growth and development of OtterHalf, and what future plans does the company have in light of this success?

The support from the SMU BIG Programme has been invaluable for OtterHalf, both monetarily and non-monetarily. The $10,000 grant has significantly aided our company, enabling us to hire additional support for daily operations while focusing on business development. In terms of non-monetary benefits:

• Mentorship from experienced veterans and startup advisors has provided crucial insights into pricing our fractional marketing services and positioning our partnership programme targeted at investors.
• Monthly calls with fellow founders have created a supportive community, allowing us to share challenges, refine pitches, and celebrate collective wins.
• Masterclasses and office hours sessions by established leaders in the Startup/VC world, organised by the SMU BIG community, have equipped us with knowledge for future success.
• Considering OtterHalf is only 9 months old as of December 2023, our future plans include:
• Short Term (Next 3 Months): Hiring new team members and driving impactful marketing strategies for startups through owned, earned, or paid media.
• Medium Term (Next 1-2 Years): Aspiring to be recognised as the go-to agency for founders and marketers of B2C and DTC tech companies at the stage of achieving product-market fit to series B/C. We aim to add substantial value, particularly for businesses with a Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) that surpasses $1 million per month.