Fractional Chief Marketing Officer for Global Consumer Brand: Achieving 30% Revenue Growth to $10 Million Annual Revenue

Company

Founded ten years ago, The Otaku Box is the world’s leading anime subscription box service. With a vibrant community of over 55,000 members, the company offers exclusive anime merchandise, including scale figures, t-shirts, and more. The Otaku Box has earned acclaim through over 1,500 five-star reviews on Trustpilot and BBB.org.

Situation

The Founder & CEO, Michael, engaged us seeking a fractional Chief Marketing Officer to share the responsibilities of running the company. Despite reaching a peak of $15 million in annual revenue during the pandemic, The Otaku Box struggled to recover revenue post-pandemic, a challenge many e-commerce companies faced. Michael felt exhausted and needed a capable leader to manage the 20-member marketing team, oversee the budget, and ideally boost revenue from its stagnated $6 million level.

Upon joining, Rafael, Founder & CEO of Zendog Labs, discovered a skilled team spread across the US, Canada, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. However, the company lacked direction and data-driven decision-making. Weekly meetings between Michael and his CFO were informal and lacked structured data review. Additionally, the company was inefficiently spending on underperforming ads, with Meta Ads reaching a spending limit and no alternative channels being utilized. Valuable assets, including 250,000 emails, 100,000 phone numbers, and strong social media followings, were underutilized.

Actions

Rafael initiated a structured discovery and audit process to understand the product, market strategy, and financials. His first major action was to implement a centralized, near-real-time dashboard for tracking key performance metrics. This single source of truth enabled data-driven decisions during weekly calls with the CEO, CFO, and COO.

With real-time data, Rafael developed and executed strategic “game plans” to enhance key business areas, including advertising, creative strategy, SEO, social media management, conversion rate optimization, email and SMS marketing, and product R&D. He also expanded the team in line with growth and engaged additional agencies, such as Linkgraph, to support his growth initiatives.

After implementing his strategies, Rafael closely monitored the key value drivers through his performance dashboard. This feedback loop allowed him to focus on successful initiatives and refine underperforming areas, gradually optimizing the company's overall performance.

Results

Results achieved were significant:

• Achieved a 30% increase in revenue, reaching $10 million in annual revenue.

• Attained a 3.5x return on ad spend (ROAS) on first-purchase, improving cash flow.

• Tripled ad spend across platforms like Meta, TikTok, Pinterest, Twitter, and Reddit to $100,000 per month.

• Increased initial average order value (IAOV) to over $110 and customer lifetime value (CLTV) to more than $450.

• Maintained strong profitability with 65% gross and 35% net margins.

• Grew email and SMS send volumes by over 10x while keeping spam reports near 0%.

• Boosted social media engagement by more than 10x.

• Enhanced search engine performance by over 3x.

• Hired talent across creative, content, and social media.

• Sourced capable agencies for SEO and PR.

Context

• Capabilities: Marketing strategy, go-to-market strategy, direct-to-consumer, SEO, social media strategy, CRO, graphic design, video desgin, user-generated content, landing page design, copywriting, content production, revenue operations, project management, team leadership, hiring, financial analysis, performance tracking

• Technologies: Shopify, SEMrush, Ahrefs, Meta Ads, TikTok Ads, Pinterest Ads, Reddit Ads, Google Ads, Twitter Ads, Snapchat Ads, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Ortto, TypeForm, Canva, Photoshop, Dash, Excel, Basecamp, Linkgraph, ClickHive

• Regions: North America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East

• Industries: E-commerce, Subscription Box, Anime, Manga