The FlairRepublic Fractional CMO Report 2025
450 senior UK leaders reveal the gaps, pressures, and opportunities in modern marketing leadership, and why flexible CMO models are set to grow.
Download the Fractional CMO Report 2025
Why This Report Now
Marketing has never been under more pressure to deliver measurable growth, yet most organisations are still unsure whether their current leadership setup is up to the job. This report captures how UK leaders are really resourcing marketing at the top, how confident they feel, and where they see the biggest risks and opportunities in 2026.
Use it to benchmark your own organisation, understand emerging leadership models such as fractional CMOs, and decide where to invest next.
Survey of 500 senior leaders across the UK (CEOs, COOs, CFOs, MDs, and functional heads).
Cross‑sector coverage including professional services, technology/SaaS, manufacturing, and retail/e‑commerce.
Focused entirely on leadership, capability, confidence, and preferred models – not just channel or campaign trends.
What you’ll learn
1. The true state of marketing leadership
See how many organisations currently have a full‑time senior marketing leader in place – and how many are relying on junior teams, agencies, or no leadership at all. Understand how this varies by size and turnover, and where the biggest strategic gaps sit.
2. Confidence vs. reality in hitting growth targets
Explore how confident leaders really are that their current setup can deliver on growth ambitions. Learn which leadership models correlate with higher confidence and where doubt and “partial confidence” are most common.
3. Awareness and adoption of fractional CMOs
Discover how familiar leaders are with the fractional CMO model, how many actively prefer it today, and where the biggest awareness gaps lie. See the education opportunity and what decision‑makers believe a fractional CMO actually does.
4. The marketing challenges keeping leaders awake
Identify the most pressing challenges across entering new markets, building brand, aligning sales and marketing, generating qualified leads, and proving ROI. Learn which of these are best solved by senior strategic leadership versus more execution.
5. Capability gaps inside today’s teams
Understand where organisations report strong strategic leadership, where they are tactically strong but strategically weak, and where they lack both. See how these capability profiles map to the potential impact of fractional CMOs.
6. How leaders want to access senior marketing expertise
Compare appetite for full‑time CMOs, fractional CMOs, interim leaders, and senior agency support.
What’s inside
Executive overview of the UK marketing leadership landscape.
Detailed breakdowns by role, sector, company size, and turnover.
Data visualisations on leadership models, confidence levels, familiarity with fractional CMOs, and preferred approaches.
Analysis of top marketing challenges and capability gaps.
Implications for the rise of fractional CMOs and other flexible leadership models.
Practical questions to benchmark your own organisation’s marketing leadership.
About FlairRepublic
FlairRepublic is a fractional CMO agency that supports businesses of all sizes across the UK (and beyond) through fractional marketing.
Founded in 2020, our aim is, and has always been, to make marketing more accessible and affordable. Through our services, businesses save on the costs required to hire a full time CMO.
By having fractional marketing, they gain access to senior level expertise exactly when they need it, without the extensive overheads, long-term contracts, or operational burdens that come with a permanent hire.
Instead of stretching internal teams or relying on disjointed freelance support, businesses can tap into our dedicated fractional CMOs who embed themselves seamlessly and provide clearly defined marketing strategies to achieve growth.