Cycling brands
What is a fractional marketing partner?
Most cycling organisations know two options: hire an agency or hire an employee. There is a third, and it fits this category unusually well.
Fractional CFOs and CMOs have been common in growth-stage companies for a decade. In cycling specifically the model is still unusual, which is odd, because the category's economics suit it almost perfectly.
Where the agency model struggles here
Cycling knowledge cannot be assumed. A generalist agency spends your time and budget learning the difference between road and gravel, why Komoot matters, what Eurobike is and who the media are. The brief becomes the ceiling: agencies execute briefs, but the strategic framing — which story, placed where — is where the value is created or lost, and agencies are incentivised to execute rather than challenge. Their economics favour volume, while earned media rewards fewer, more credible, better-timed pieces. And agency teams do not ride the routes or test the products, so the content comes out accurate but not credible.
Where the full-time hire struggles
It is not economical unless there are fifty weeks of work to fill. And the person who is genuinely expert in earned media, genuinely knowledgeable about cycling and genuinely experienced in destination and brand positioning is rare, and almost never available at a cycling brand's or a regional tourism board's salary level.
What the fractional partner actually does
Strategic positioning: finding the genuinely distinctive story rather than the internal assumption. Earned media strategy and execution: identifying the moments, channels and relationships, and preparing in advance of races, events and launches. Production from inside the experience: riding the routes, attending the events, testing the products, which is what makes it credible. Distribution and amplification through Komoot, cycling media, creator networks and trade shows, using relationships that make organic resharing possible. And measurement against leads, bookings and revenue rather than impressions as an end in themselves.
How this practice is set up
Deliberately small. A limited number of clients at any time, and genuine depth on each. GRAVAA as first communication professional and interim CMO: sixty million earned impressions, tripled social following, no paid spend. Pilot Cycles: a dedicated sprint producing nine million impressions and 280 qualified leads. Visit Luxembourg from 2021 to 2024: more than ninety thousand Komoot clicks. Cycling in Flanders since 2022. Go Türkiye, rebooked four times since 2022. Plus route content, media placement, creator coordination and trade show representation for Visit Cyprus, Visit Lahti, Visit Örebro, Visit Eifel, Visit Groningen and the Zuiderwaterlinie.
Who it fits
Fast decision-makers who trust judgment without heavy sign-off. Outcome-oriented clients who care about leads, bookings and converted followers rather than post counts. Organisations open to unconventional approaches, because a self-financed solo adventure presented as independent editorial outperforms a produced brand video. And organisations with a genuine story to tell.
Who it does not fit
Organisations that need volume on a fixed schedule. Organisations that need brand safety above everything, because authenticity requires the freedom to be unpolished and occasionally surprising, and a heavy approval process kills the advantage. And short-term campaign thinking, because the compounding value is most visible over twelve to twenty-four months.
Also published in Dutch on loekluijbregts.com, where the same thinking is applied to owner-led companies outside cycling.