Vice · Global

The Otaku Box

Fractional CMO: 30% revenue growth to $10M with a 20-person global team

Overview

The Otaku Box is the world's leading anime subscription box with 55,000+ members and 1,500+ five-star reviews. After peaking at $15M during the pandemic, revenue had stagnated at $6M. The Founder needed a fractional CMO to lead the 20-person marketing team, manage the budget, and reignite growth. Upon joining, we found a skilled but directionless team, no centralized data, inefficient ad spend capped on Meta with no alternative channels, and 250K emails + 100K phone numbers sitting unused.

Actions

  • Built a centralized, near-real-time performance dashboard as a single source of truth
  • Ran structured weekly reviews with CEO, CFO, and COO driven by data
  • Developed and executed game plans across paid ads, creative, SEO, social, CRO, email/SMS, and product R&D
  • Tripled ad spend to $100K/month across Meta, TikTok, Pinterest, Twitter, and Reddit
  • Set up email and SMS automations, growing send volume 10x while keeping spam reports near 0%
  • Hired creative, content, and social media talent
  • Sourced and managed agencies for SEO and PR

Results

  • 30% revenue increase, reaching $10M annual revenue
  • 3.5x ROAS on first purchase
  • IAOV over $110, CLTV over $450
  • 65% gross margin, 35% net margin
  • 10x+ growth in social media engagement
  • 3x+ improvement in search engine performance

Tags

  • Growth Strategy
  • Governance Strategy
  • Marketing Strategy
  • Paid Advertising
  • SEO
  • Email/SMS Marketing
  • CRO
  • People Strategy

Want to learn more, or talk through how this might apply to your business? Get in touch.