Marketing counsel with a seat at your boardroom table.
First Friday Marketing places executive level marketing counsel inside leadership teams and boards — not a full-time hire, not a generalist agency retainer.
In ShortSenior marketing leadership, on retainer, on your board's calendar.
- Chief Marketing Officer for a $300M Alberta Energy Company
- Ownership of multi-million dollar marketing budgets with full P&L
- Official spokesperson for a major Alberta regulatory body
The agenda
Four standing engagements a leadership team can bring to the table, individually or in combination.
Fractional CMO placement
A senior marketing executive embedded in your leadership team on a fixed cadence — owning the function, chairing the reviews, and accountable to the board without the cost or hiring risk of a full-time officer.
Marketing strategy & audits
An independent, board-grade review of positioning, spend, and go-to-market — what's working, what's wasted, and the three moves that would change the trajectory this year.
Board & executive advisory sessions
A standing advisory retainer for founders, CEOs, and boards — a second set of eyes on marketing decisions before they reach the full board, briefed in language a board can act on.
Growth & revenue consulting
Pipeline, demand generation, and revenue operations brought under one review — aligning marketing's targets with what the board is actually being held to.
How a sitting runs
Every engagement moves through the same four motions before anything reaches your budget.
Called to order
Discovery: the business, the market, and the marketing function as they actually stand today — not the deck version.
• DiscoveryOld business reviewed
Audit & diagnosis of current spend, channels, and team — what's earning its keep and what's quietly not.
• DiagnosisNew business proposed
A prescription: the specific strategy, hires, or reallocation the board needs to approve to move the number.
• PrescriptionMotion carried
Execution under standing governance — reported at the next sitting like any other line item on the board's calendar.
• ExecutionResolved: that marketing judgment belongs in the room where the decisions are actually made — not summarized for it after the fact.
First Friday Marketing Consulting — founding principle, adopted at the first sitting.
The executive
One principal, accountable for every sitting — no handoffs, no junior bench.
Gurshan Dhillon
Chief Marketing Officer
Mr. Dhillon builds marketing functions that owners and CFOs can underwrite — engines measured in payback period and margin.
As Chief Marketing Officer of a $300M Alberta energy company, he held full P&L accountability and rebuilt the commercial model around lifetime value — proving existing accounts return 3.4x the margin of new ones ($9,190 vs. $2,718) and redirecting spend accordingly. Result: gross margin up 14.2% to $21.4M on flat volume, and a go-to-market cost restructure that turned a $229K-loss acquisition channel into a $401K contributor, lifting return on new-business spend from $0.84 to $1.50 per dollar.
He built the pipeline machinery behind those numbers: a 115,000-contact B2B database converted into a predictable channel generating 20+ qualified leads a week at $58 each, plus a proprietary prospect-scoring tool that opened an entire equipment-intensive segment invisible to traditional field sales. The result: $17M in incremental revenue and monthly sales volume up 6x.
Before that, as Senior Communications Advisor to the Government of Alberta, he served as spokesperson for a major regulatory body through workplace incidents, international missions, and legislative overhauls — the training ground for advising boards under real pressure.
Bachelor of Marketing, University of Alberta.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a fractional CMO?
A fractional CMO is an experienced Chief Marketing Officer who works with your company part-time or on a defined engagement, providing executive-level marketing leadership without the cost or commitment of a full-time hire.
How is First Friday Marketing different from a marketing agency?
First Friday Marketing places senior marketing judgment directly inside your leadership team or board — setting strategy and holding accountability for outcomes — rather than executing tactical work as an outside vendor.
What industries does First Friday Marketing work with?
Gurshan Dhillon's background spans corporate, government, and energy sector marketing leadership, including serving as Chief Marketing Officer of a $300M Alberta energy company.
What does an engagement with First Friday Marketing look like?
Engagements typically include a structured intake, a strategic audit, ongoing advisory sessions, and clear recommendations carried through to execution. Reach out to scope what fits your team.
Where is First Friday Marketing based?
First Friday Marketing is based in Alberta, Canada, and works with leadership teams and boards in person or by board call.