The work, and what it actually produced
Eighteen years, 200+ companies, and €200M+ in media budget allocated over those 18 years, across agencies, platforms and in-house teams. Two engagements shaped how I work more than the rest: running marketing for four business units inside a media group, and building an agency from one employee to 27. Everything below is a number I can point at.
the numbers
The figures I keep coming back to
Four numbers from four different situations. Each one is documented, and each one comes from a different kind of problem.
70,000+ visitors per edition
The TNW Conference, reaching 15+ countries. A niche Dutch tech event that had to break into the European top, built full-funnel from scratch: brand PR, performance advertising, ticket sales and the sponsor pipeline.
CAC down 40%, pipeline up 65%
Marketing and sales aligned in one system, with lead scoring and automated sequences, over two and a half years. The pipeline figure is sponsor revenue.
Conversion from 1.2% to 3.1%
A D2C e-commerce business where traffic was never the problem. Data analysis, A/B tests on product pages, a simplified checkout and a retargeting overhaul. Revenue per visitor up 158%, on zero extra media spend.
€1.2M pipeline in six months
A B2B SaaS scale-up whose budget was bleeding into Google Ads while the pipeline stayed too thin to close deals. Rebuilt the account around buyer intent, redesigned the landing pages, built lead scoring from scratch.
case one
The Next Web: four businesses, one marketing function
TNW is not one company but four at once: one of Europe’s largest tech conferences, a media business with 100,000+ pages, an innovation platform connecting startups to corporates like ABN AMRO, Polestar and Amazon, and co-working spaces in Amsterdam. Each unit had its own buyer, its own buying moment and its own funnel. I was responsible for marketing across all four, and led a team of 10 international specialists covering programmatic, data and analytics, content, email, branding and project management.
The largest single job was not a campaign. It was moving four teams onto one CRM, from scattered data in separate systems to one platform with enriched profiles and shared segments. That is what made lead scoring possible, and lead scoring is what made targeted outreach possible to partners, event visitors and co-working clients at the same time.
Because TNW belonged to the Financial Times group, I worked with the CMO of the FT on questions both companies had: more visitors to FT events, more subscriptions. Shared audiences, joint events, cross-platform campaigns. That seam between a British group and a Dutch business is the same one an international company stands on when it enters the Netherlands, only from the other side.
case two
Labelnone: from one employee to 27 in a year
Six investors called me to build a white-label marketing agency from Spain. I said yes, moved to Valencia, and started day one as the only employee. A white-label agency works behind the scenes for other agencies: when their project volume spikes, they need specialists that week, and the end client never notices. We delivered advertising, SEO, branding, content, CRM setup and AI implementation.
One year later the company had grown from 2 to 27 people from seven countries, working for 45 marketing agencies across the Netherlands, the US, South Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Profitable within three months, meaning all salaries and overhead covered by what we earned. Hiring, onboarding, sales, two office moves, and the Friday afternoon drinks.
I stopped Labelnone not because it was failing, but because I could add more value standing next to one client than overseeing 45 projects from a distance. That is also the shortest explanation of why I work as a Fractional CMO now.
the brands
Brands I have worked for or with
Some as an employer, some as a client, some as a media partner through TNW. The role is listed because the name alone says little about what the work was.
| Brand | Role |
|---|---|
| The Next Web | Head of Marketing and Growth |
| Financial Times | Collaboration from within the FT group |
| Labelnone | Founder |
| Trainin | Fractional CMO |
| BrainBoostXR | Fractional CMO |
| ABN AMRO | Media partner via TNW |
| Polestar | Media partner via TNW |
| Amazon | Media partner via TNW |
| Heineken | Brand activation |
| Nestlé | Digital marketing |
| Yamaha | Digital marketing |
| Gaastra | Brand and performance |
| McGregor | E-commerce marketing |
| Blundstone | D2C marketing |
| Colourful Rebel | Performance marketing |
| Beter Bed | Performance and CRO |
| VTwonen | Content marketing |
| Nu.nl | Media and advertising |
| Make-A-Wish | Donor acquisition |
| Clini Clowns | Campaign strategy |
| WE Fashion | Retail marketing |
| Adyen | Marketing |
Want the version that applies to your situation?
Thirty minutes. Tell me where you are stuck and I will tell you which of the above is actually comparable, including where it is not.