FRACTIONAL CMO · GTA AND ACROSS CANADA
Senior marketing leadership, without the full-time hire.
I'm Jo Jo Marks. I help growing Canadian companies sharpen their message and get marketing done. I set the strategy and do the work, so nothing falls through the cracks.
Fractional, retainer and project-based engagements.
20+
years in marketing, from global brands to growing businesses
30,000
World of Warcraft MMO mice, first production run sold out
20,000+
attendees at each Ford Canada activation at the Bell Centre
11
years running J2 Marketing
BRANDS I'VE WORKED WITH
Across my career and client work
HOW I HELP
One person accountable for the thinking and the doing.
01
Fractional marketing leadership
Your senior marketing lead, part-time. I set direction, run the plan, and manage the people and partners who deliver it.
03
Launches and campaigns
Get a product or service to market without the chaos. I own the timeline, the budget and the outcome.
02
Strategy and messaging
Turn fuzzy positioning into a clear story your team can repeat and your customers understand, with a go-to-market plan to back it.
04
Content, web and AI workflows
Websites and copy that pull their weight, plus AI workflows trained on your brand voice, so you get more output without adding headcount.
HOW I WORK
Three things I believe about marketing
01
Clear and honest beats clever.
Messaging only works if the right people understand it and believe it. Say what you actually do, plainly, and mean it. Clever lines and big claims get noticed. Clear, sincere ones get trusted.
02
The best plan is the one your team actually uses.
Too many spreadsheets and presentations overwhelm people, and your team will quietly ignore them. Build a plan that's just detailed enough to act on, then track the few numbers that tell you if it's working.
03
Use AI to make your people better, not fewer.
AI is cheap today, but it won't stay that way. Replace your team with it, and eventually you'll pay more for the service than the wages you cut. Use it as a tool instead: it makes your team faster and more creative, and lets them do things they couldn't do before.
CLIENT WORK
The work, and what it did.
CINCO
Go-to-market for an AI experience
Challenge: Help Cinco's founder take a new kind of AI experience to market, one clients had never seen before and didn't know they needed.
Result: Messaging, launch narratives, onboarding workflows and a business development plan that carried the offer through to market validation.
FORD CANADA
Bell Centre fan activations
Challenge: Make Ford's EV message stick with hockey fans, on a five-week timeline.
Result: Two interactive experiences drawing 20,000+ attendees per event, delivered by a team of 6 across agency, production, vendor and design partners.
GLOBAL TECH SERVICES ALLIANCE
One brand for seven companies
Challenge: Give seven independent tech firms across four continents a single market identity, with buy-in from every member CEO.
Result: A unified positioning and full rebrand, including website, ad campaign and content strategy, delivered in 6 months.
MORE CLIENT WORK
Aéroports de Montréal
Crafted the brand narrative for the sales deck ADM used to convince airlines around the world to fly into Montréal.
S.Pellegrino Young Chef Academy
Content strategy, on-screen materials and forum programming for the regional competition, engaging 150+ industry professionals and media.
Rancho Fantastico
Website refresh for an independent post-production studio: new navigation, visuals and copy.
Content and copywriting
Social content and video scripts for Ford Canada, webshop product copy for Hayabusa, and event scripts for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.
What clients say
“Exceptional at finding the right narrative and making complex ideas resonate. Flexible, responsive, and consistently delivers.”
Stephanie Fagen
Senior Account Director, Cinco
“Jo Jo brought structure and clarity to our marketing, from rebuilding our website to keeping our communications sharp and consistent.”
Dave Cunningham
President, SMS InfoComm Corp.
“Creative and practical. She brought ideas we hadn’t considered, strengthened our approach, and delivered on time.”
Chris Rathgeber
CEO, Memofix
ABOUT
Inside experience, outside perspective.
I've spent 20+ years helping companies figure out what to say, who to say it to, and how to make it land. I'm usually brought in when a brand, category or message needs defining: a new market, a group of stakeholders who need to agree, or new technology customers don't understand yet.
Before J2, I led marketing in-house, so I know the role from the inside. I started J2 Marketing for two reasons: the flexibility to raise my family, and the chance to work across many industries instead of just one. You work directly with me. No account managers, no layers.
Outside of work, I'm an avid gamer (it's no coincidence I spent a decade marketing gaming gear), and I speak Cantonese.
CREDENTIALS
Honours Business Administration
Ivey Business School
MBA Essentials
Rotman School of Management
Digital Marketing Certification
HubSpot
Before J2
SteelSeries
DIRECTOR OF MARKETING
Led global marketing for a gaming peripheral line with 10 launches a year. Launched the World of Warcraft MMO mouse, which sold out its 30,000-unit first run and helped double product line revenue.
Ideazon
FOUNDING MARKETING HIRE
Brought a first-of-its-kind gaming keyboard to market, helped create a new product category, and secured national retail at Best Buy and GameStop/EB Games. Acquired by SteelSeries.
HP Canada
PR AND COMMUNICATIONS
Executive messaging and PR for an enterprise tech leader. Built and ran a 10-member Canadian Executive Board of Advisors through the Compaq/HP merger.
Let’s talk.
Coffee in the GTA or a video call, your pick. Tell me what you're working on, and I'll reply personally.