Fractional CMO for Digital Media Companies
Senior marketing leadership for digital media platforms and startups, from a leader who scaled audience growth and monetization at Amazon, Twitch, and Pandora.
Book a Call →Audience Growth and Monetization at Scale
Field Vision provides fractional CMO and marketing leadership to digital media companies and startups, platforms, publishers, and media apps. The firm is led by David Hampian, a growth marketing executive with over a decade of senior leadership at platform-scale digital media: Amazon, Twitch, and Pandora. He grew Pandora to over 80 million monthly active users, expanded Twitch beyond gaming into new verticals, and led audience development across Amazon's media portfolio. Field Vision helps seed-to-Series D media companies build the two systems that decide whether they scale, audience growth and monetization, using the proprietary ABCT®, SCORE®, and CGS® frameworks, delivering senior fractional CMO leadership without the $500K+ cost of a full-time hire.
Where We've Done It
Digital media lives and dies on two systems: how you grow audience and how you monetize it. Field Vision's leadership built both at the platforms that scaled them to tens of millions of users.
Pandora
Grew Pandora to over 80 million monthly active users and lifted retention and conversion.
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Media Needs a System, Not More Tactics
Digital media startups rarely fail for lack of tactics, they fail because audience growth and monetization aren't built as connected systems. A generalist chases traffic without a plan for retaining or monetizing it.
- ✗ Chases traffic and vanity reach with no retention system behind it
- ✗ Treats audience growth and monetization as separate, disconnected goals
- ✗ Optimizes channels in isolation instead of a compounding funnel
- ✗ Has no operating system to scale what's working
- ✗ Has never grown audience or monetization at platform scale
- ✓ Builds audience growth and monetization as one connected system
- ✓ Engineers acquisition, activation, and retention that compound
- ✓ Sequences monetization so it scales with audience, not against it
- ✓ Installs the operating system to scale what works and cut what doesn't
- ✓ Brings the playbook from Amazon, Twitch, and Pandora at scale
What We Do for Digital Media Companies
Audience Growth Systems
Acquisition, activation, and retention built as one compounding funnel, the growth engine that turns reach into a durable, owned audience.
Monetization Strategy
Subscription, advertising, and commerce models sequenced so monetization scales with the audience instead of taxing growth.
Positioning & GTM
Positioning and go-to-market for new products, formats, and markets, built on audience intelligence and the channels that actually convert.
Marketing Operating System
Dashboards, workflows, experimentation, and reporting that let a media company scale what works and kill what doesn't, without heroics.
Growth Experimentation
A hypothesis-driven testing engine (built on SCORE®) that turns guesses into a documented playbook of what grows your audience.
Team & Vendor Build
Hiring roadmaps, vendor selection, and org design to build the marketing team your media company needs, then transfer it to you.
Who This Is For
This engagement is built for founders and CEOs of digital media companies who need experienced marketing leadership now, not six months from now. If any of these sound familiar, fractional CMO leadership may be the right move.
- ✓ Building a media platform, publisher, or app and need a growth strategy
- ✓ Have traffic or users but no system to retain or monetize them
- ✓ Ready to sequence subscription, ad, or commerce monetization
- ✓ Hitting a growth plateau and marketing feels like disconnected tactics
- ✓ Have a marketing team but no senior leader to build the system
- ✓ Want someone who scaled audience and revenue at Amazon, Twitch, and Pandora
FAQ
What does a fractional CMO for a digital media company actually do?
A fractional CMO for a digital media company is a senior marketing executive who embeds with your team part-time, typically 2 to 3 days per week, to own marketing strategy and build the systems that grow and monetize your audience. That means audience acquisition, activation, and retention built as one funnel, monetization strategy across subscription, advertising, and commerce, positioning and go-to-market for new products, a growth-experimentation engine, and the operating system and team to run it. Field Vision does this without the $500K+ cost of a full-time CMO, and is built to transfer the playbook to your team.
Why hire a fractional CMO who scaled media platforms instead of a generalist?
Digital media succeeds on two systems most generalists never operate at scale: audience growth and monetization, working together. A generalist can drive traffic but rarely connects it to retention and revenue. Field Vision's leadership grew Pandora to over 80 million monthly active users, expanded Twitch beyond gaming, and led audience development at Amazon, so the strategy is built around how media audiences actually grow and pay, not borrowed tactics.
How should a digital media startup sequence audience growth and monetization?
Audience first, but never in isolation. The early priority is a repeatable acquisition-to-retention funnel that builds an owned, engaged audience. Monetization is then layered in, subscription, advertising, or commerce, sequenced so it scales with the audience rather than taxing growth too early. The two are designed as one connected system from the start. Field Vision builds this using the SCORE® and Compound Growth System (CGS®) frameworks so growth and revenue compound together.
How much does a fractional CMO for a digital media company cost?
Fractional CMO engagements typically run between $5,000 and $15,000 per month depending on scope and time commitment, structured as a monthly retainer based on roughly 2 to 3 days per week. That is a fraction of a full-time CMO, which exceeds $500K in total compensation once salary, equity, benefits, and recruiting are included. The right number depends on your stage, team, and goals, which is what the discovery call is for.
Do you work with early-stage media startups, or only funded companies?
Field Vision works with digital media companies from seed through Series D. Earlier-stage startups usually need positioning, a focused go-to-market motion, and the first repeatable audience and monetization loops; later-stage companies need to scale systems, build the team, and optimize revenue. The engagement is scoped to your stage, and because it's built to transfer, you end up owning the systems.
Why do digital media startups need a marketing system instead of more tactics?
Most media startups have no shortage of tactics, they have a shortage of systems. Growth stalls when acquisition, retention, and monetization are run as disconnected efforts instead of one compounding engine. A marketing operating system makes growth repeatable and measurable, so you can scale what works and cut what doesn't. Building that system at platform scale is exactly what Field Vision did at Amazon, Twitch, and Pandora.
Ready to Scale Your Media Company?
Book a 30-minute discovery call. We'll talk about where your marketing is today, where you want to take your audience and revenue, and whether Field Vision is the right fit.
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