Marketing Leadership Roles That Actually Drive Growth

Wingstop UK didn’t just hire a senior marketer this week. It redrew the org chart.

On 5 January 2026, Marketing Week reported that Wingstop UK created two new marketing leadership roles: chief growth officer (CGO) and chief brand officer (CBO). Former Wagamama chief marketing and commercial officer Emma Colquhoun steps in as CGO, while Wingstop’s first-ever CMO, Dirujan Sabesan, moves into the CBO role.

For UK small businesses, this matters because it highlights a reality most SMEs bump into around the £300k–£3m turnover mark: one “marketing person” can’t own growth, brand, acquisition, retention, partnerships, and social forever. At some point you need clearer ownership—without turning your business into a corporate maze.

This post is part of the British Small Business Digital Marketing series, and we’ll use Wingstop’s move as a practical case study: how to structure marketing leadership so your digital marketing actually produces leads and revenue (not just “nice posts”).

What Wingstop’s new roles signal (and why SMEs should care)

Answer first: Wingstop’s split between growth and brand shows a deliberate choice to treat brand building and commercial growth as distinct jobs that must work together.

Wingstop UK is still in scale-up mode: it launched in the UK in 2018, has grown to roughly 60 stores, and was acquired last year by US investment firm Sixth Street (per the report). That’s the exact moment when many brands stop relying on hustle and start relying on systems.

Here’s what the new structure suggests:

• Growth needs a commercial owner. Not “someone who helps out on performance marketing”, but a leader accountable for growth strategy across channels.
• Brand needs protecting while you scale. When you expand quickly, consistency and distinctiveness tend to slip. A dedicated brand lead stops “random acts of marketing.”
• Culture and creativity are viewed as growth inputs, not decoration. Sabesan’s remit is explicitly about ensuring creativity and culture drive growth.

If you’re a small business owner, you don’t need to copy the job titles. You do need the underlying decision: separate the questions of “How do we grow next month?” and “What are we famous for next year?” Then force them to work together.

CGO vs CBO in plain English

• A Chief Growth Officer owns how the business grows: demand generation, funnel performance, channel mix, pricing tests, retention/CRM, partnerships, expansion plans.
• A Chief Brand Officer owns what the business stands for: positioning, messaging, brand identity, tone of voice, creative quality, community, cultural relevance.

Most SMEs mash both into one role and then wonder why:

• performance ads get clicks but the leads are poor;
• SEO gets traffic but conversions lag;
• social gets engagement but revenue stays flat.

That’s not a “platform problem”. It’s a clarity problem.

The small business version: two hats you must separate

Answer first: You don’t need two executives—you need two clearly defined “owners” (even if that’s the same person on different days) and two different scorecards.

In a small business, marketing leadership design usually fails in one of two ways:

1. Everything is “marketing”. So nothing is prioritised, reporting is muddy, and the loudest request wins.
2. Marketing is treated as promotion only. So brand becomes an afterthought and growth becomes dependent on discounts and constant paid spend.

A better approach is to separate Brand Work from Growth Work.

Brand work (CBO thinking)

Brand work is what makes your future paid and organic marketing cheaper.

• Clear positioning (who you’re for, why you’re different)
• Consistent creative system (templates, guidelines, tone)
• Distinctive assets (visual cues, recurring hooks, signature offers)
• Trust builders (reviews, case studies, proof, authority)

Small business KPI examples: direct traffic trend, branded search volume, review velocity, conversion rate from “cold” visitors, returning visitors, email signup rate.

Growth work (CGO thinking)

Growth work is what keeps cash flow moving.

• Lead generation campaigns (Google Ads, Meta, LinkedIn depending on B2C/B2B)
• SEO plans tied to commercial intent keywords
• Conversion rate optimisation (landing pages, offers, forms)
• CRM + retention (email/SMS, repeat purchase, referrals)
• Partnerships and local distribution (where relevant)

Small business KPI examples: cost per lead, lead-to-sale rate, CAC payback, pipeline value, repeat rate, average order value, booking rate.

Snippet-worthy rule: If your marketing report doesn’t separate brand signals from growth metrics, you’re flying blind.

What Wingstop gets right: growth + culture isn’t fluffy

Answer first: Wingstop’s focus on youth culture is a reminder that “brand” is often the reason people choose you before they compare prices.

The article references Wingstop’s strength in tapping into youth culture and Sabesan’s emphasis on not losing sight of that audience as the brand scales. That’s not just a creative preference—it’s a strategic moat.

Here’s the part many SMEs miss: culture is a targeting tool.

When your business reflects a recognisable identity—values, humour, aesthetics, opinions—it does three things:

1. Improves ad efficiency. People self-select faster. Your click-through rate and conversion rate rise because your message is clearer.
2. Boosts word of mouth. Distinctiveness is shareable; generic isn’t.
3. Protects pricing. Brands with a point of view discount less.

In UK small business digital marketing, this plays out in practical ways:

• A trades company stops competing on “reliable and friendly” and becomes known for “on-time or it’s free”.
• A local café becomes the go-to for “quiet laptop mornings” and “late-afternoon sweet treats” instead of “great coffee”.
• A B2B consultancy publishes blunt teardown content and becomes the “straight-talking” option.

You don’t need Wingstop’s budgets. You do need Wingstop’s discipline: decide who you’re for, then build marketing that feels like it was made for them.

A simple org chart for SMEs: 5 roles, 1–3 people

Answer first: Assign ownership by outcomes, not by channels.

Even if you have a tiny team (or contractors), here’s a structure that works surprisingly well.

1) Growth owner (fractional CGO approach)

This person is accountable for growth targets and prioritisation.

Weekly responsibilities:

• choose the 1–2 growth bets for the week
• review funnel numbers (traffic → lead → sale)
• kill what isn’t working

2) Brand owner (fractional CBO approach)

This person guards clarity and creative quality.

Weekly responsibilities:

• review ads and content for consistency
• tighten messaging and offers
• maintain a basic brand system (copy bank, visuals, tone)

3) Demand capture (SEO + PPC)

Someone must own the “high intent” work:

• Google Business Profile (for local)
• service pages and landing pages
• Google Ads/search campaigns

4) Demand creation (social + content)

Someone must own the “why choose us” work:

• short-form video and social proof
• content marketing for FAQs and objections
• partnerships and community activity

5) Conversion + CRM

Someone must own what happens after the click:

• landing page testing
• email automation
• follow-up and lead handling

One person can cover multiple boxes. The critical part is this: every box has a name next to it.

The “two scorecards” system (steal this)

Answer first: Keep growth and brand metrics separate, then review them together every month.

Here’s what I’ve found works for small businesses trying to generate leads consistently.

Growth scorecard (monthly)

• Leads generated (by channel)
• Cost per lead (paid + blended)
• Lead-to-sale conversion rate
• Revenue/pipeline attributed
• Website conversion rate (top landing pages)

Brand scorecard (monthly)

• Branded search trend (Google Search Console)
• Direct traffic trend (GA4)
• Review count + average rating (Google, Trustpilot, sector sites)
• Email list growth rate
• Social saves/shares (not just likes)

Run both scorecards in the same meeting. The conversation becomes healthier:

• Brand people see the commercial pressure.
• Growth people stop “performance-washing” weak positioning.

Good growth marketing scales what’s already working. Brand marketing decides what should be working in the first place.

People also ask: do small businesses need a chief growth officer?

Answer first: Not as a full-time title—but you do need a growth function with authority.

If you’re doing £30k/month and want to reach £60k/month, you need someone who can:

• set growth priorities across channels (not just “post more”)
• connect marketing to sales operations
• make decisions based on numbers

That could be you. It could be a marketing manager. It could be a fractional consultant for 1–2 days a month. What doesn’t work is leaving growth to “everyone” and hoping it appears.

A practical next step for your business this week

If Wingstop’s restructure tells us anything, it’s that growth becomes less chaotic when accountability is clear. That’s as true for a 60-store chain as it is for a two-person service business in Leeds.

Here’s the simple exercise:

1. Write down your single most important growth goal for Q1 2026 (leads, bookings, repeat purchase, etc.).
2. Name the person who owns it (even if it’s you).
3. Write down the single biggest brand problem holding you back (unclear positioning, inconsistent creative, weak trust signals, “we look like everyone else”).
4. Name the person who owns fixing it.

If the same name appears twice, that’s fine. But run two separate weekly slots: one for growth actions, one for brand decisions.

The next question is the one Wingstop is answering in real time: as you scale, what do you protect—and what do you push harder?