--- title: Interim Marketing Leadership | Summatt, Sydney description: Your marketing lead has left, or you're not ready to hire one. Senior cover that keeps the function running and leaves it in better shape than it was found. --- [Skip to content](https://www.summatt.com/interim-marketing-leadership#main-content) [![](https://www.summatt.com/hs-fs/hubfs/summatt-lockup-stacked-1000.png?width=1000&height=548&name=summatt-lockup-stacked-1000.png)Homepage](https://www.summatt.com/?hsLang=en) - Services - [Marketing Strategy](https://www.summatt.com/marketing-strategy?hsLang=en) - [Go-to-Market](https://www.summatt.com/go-to-market?hsLang=en) - [Customer Experience](https://www.summatt.com/customer-experience?hsLang=en) - [Interim Marketing Leadership](https://www.summatt.com/interim-marketing-leadership) - [Marketing Diagnostics](https://www.summatt.com/marketing-diagnostics?hsLang=en) - [Team & Capability](https://www.summatt.com/team-and-capability?hsLang=en) - [Case Studies](https://www.summatt.com/case-studies?hsLang=en) - [About](https://www.summatt.com/about?hsLang=en) - [FAQ](https://www.summatt.com/faq?hsLang=en) [Book a call](https://www.summatt.com/book-a-call?hsLang=en) - Services - [Marketing Strategy](https://www.summatt.com/marketing-strategy?hsLang=en) - [Go-to-Market](https://www.summatt.com/go-to-market?hsLang=en) - [Customer Experience](https://www.summatt.com/customer-experience?hsLang=en) - [Interim Marketing Leadership](https://www.summatt.com/interim-marketing-leadership) - [Marketing Diagnostics](https://www.summatt.com/marketing-diagnostics?hsLang=en) - [Team & Capability](https://www.summatt.com/team-and-capability?hsLang=en) - [Case Studies](https://www.summatt.com/case-studies?hsLang=en) - [About](https://www.summatt.com/about?hsLang=en) - [FAQ](https://www.summatt.com/faq?hsLang=en) [Book a call](https://www.summatt.com/book-a-call?hsLang=en) Fractional CMO · Strategy · Go-to-Market · Customer Experience # Interim marketing leadership Standing in as the senior marketer while you recruit, restructure, or work out what the role should be. Includes running the team, the budget and the agency relationships. [Book a call →](https://www.summatt.com/book-a-call?hsLang=en) /01 ## The conversation usually starts with one of these "Our Head of Marketing has resigned and the search will take five months." "We're restructuring and the team needs someone senior while it settles." "I'm not certain what this role should even be any more." /02 ## A gap at the top is when businesses make their worst marketing decisions. When the senior marketer leaves, the work doesn't stop — it just stops being decided. The agency keeps invoicing, campaigns keep running on last year's logic, and every judgement call gets escalated to a CEO who has eleven other things on. Three months of that is expensive in ways that don't show up until later. The other cost is the rushed hire. A vacancy creates pressure, pressure shortens the search, and businesses end up hiring the person who can start soonest rather than the one the role actually needs — often without ever having worked out what the role needs, because the person who could have answered that has left. I hold the function steady so you can run a proper search, and I'll tell you honestly what to hire — one person, two, or something other than what you had. I'm not a candidate, so that answer has nothing riding on it. The point Buying time to hire well is cheaper than hiring fast. /03 ## How the work happens Typically two to three days a week, for as long as the gap lasts — with a defined end, not an open-ended retainer. Weeks 1–2 ### Steady it Meet the team, take the budget, get across the agency contracts and stop anything that's running on momentum alone. Decisions start getting made again. Ongoing ### Run it Day-to-day leadership of the function, in the leadership meetings, accountable for the number — while you run the search at the pace it deserves. On exit ### Hand over A real handover pack rather than a black box — what's running, what it costs, what I'd do next and why, so your permanent hire starts ahead rather than from scratch. /04 ## What you get 01 Day-to-day leadership of the marketing function — team, budget, agency relationships 02 A seat in the leadership meetings, so marketing is represented where decisions get made 03 Someone who can hold the line with sales as a peer, having had both functions report to them 04 Continuity while you run a proper search, instead of a rushed one 05 A clear-eyed read on what the role actually needs, so the eventual hire is the right one 06 An honest assessment of the team you've got — who's ready for more, who's in the wrong seat 07 Agency and supplier relationships reviewed by someone with no history with them 08 Input on the shortlist and the interviews, from someone who has done the job here 09 A real handover pack, not a black box, once someone permanent starts /05 ## Why this one is different Most interim marketing leaders have only ever run marketing. I've sat in the seat where sales reported to me as well — at an ASX-listed technology company, and again in my current contract role. That matters in an interim engagement, because the gap you're filling isn't only a marketing gap: it's a missing voice in the leadership meeting, and a missing counterparty for whoever runs sales. 20 yearsIn senior marketing roles, in-house $20–100MTypical client revenue range BothSales and marketing have reported to me /06 ## Who this is for Your Head of Marketing has left and the search will take months. You're restructuring and need someone senior steering the function while it settles. Or you're not yet sure whether the role should be one hire, two, or something else — and want that answered by someone who isn't angling for the job themselves. Good fit - There's a team and a budget to actually lead, not just a title - You want the function represented in the leadership meeting, not managed from outside it - You'd rather hear what the role should be than have your assumptions confirmed Not a fit - You need five days a week — at that point you need a permanent hire, and I'll say so - The role is hands-on execution rather than leadership - You want a placeholder who won't change anything until the real hire arrives /07 ## Engage Summatt. Get Stu. ![Stuart Matthewman, founder of Summatt](https://www.summatt.com/hubfs/stuart-matthewman-portrait-v2.jpg) Twenty years in senior marketing roles, most of it in-house rather than in an agency — which means I've had to live with my own recommendations, not just hand them over and move on. I'm direct, I show the working, and I'll tell you when something's rubbish. Nicely. On the record Former CMO of an ASX-listed technology company. Currently head of marketing, on contract, for an ASX-listed healthcare group. Sales has reported to me in both. Get in touch ## Tell me what's going on. I read these myself and reply within a day. If it's obvious from your message that I'm not the right person, I'll tell you that too — and usually point you at who is. Your details go into my CRM so I can reply, and nowhere else. I don't sell data or add people to lists they didn't ask for. The [privacy policy](https://www.summatt.com/privacy-policy?hsLang=en) has the detail. - Services - [Case Studies](https://www.summatt.com/case-studies?hsLang=en) - [About](https://www.summatt.com/about?hsLang=en) - [FAQ](https://www.summatt.com/faq?hsLang=en) [Privacy Policy](https://www.summatt.com/privacy-policy?hsLang=en) · [Terms of Engagement](https://www.summatt.com/terms-of-engagement?hsLang=en) · © 2026. 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