Marketing leadership for organizations navigating growth.
Two decades in marketing leadership
Hi, I'm Ali Rittenhouse. For twenty years I've led marketing that moves things. Six-figure launches, levy campaigns that passed, a monthly video show for a regional hospital that built real community trust, and videos that hit 10K views in their first week.
I've worked across healthcare, nonprofits, financial institutions, and manufacturing. In every environment the same gap shows up. Growth creates complexity, and marketing needs leadership to navigate both.
I’ve always been drawn to organizations that are building something meaningful, the kind of work where marketing helps people understand why it matters.
As a fractional CMO and owner of Creative Marketing Strategies, I help organizations bring strategy, ideas, and execution into alignment so marketing supports where the organization is headed.
I've been in the room where decisions are made. I've led the work that follows.
And I've built a team capable of executing the strategy that moves organizations forward.
Fractional CMO
Strategic marketing leadership without the full-time commitment
How I got here.
Honestly, I didn't set out to become a fractional CMO. That title didn't even exist when I started.
What I did know was that I kept showing up in the same place inside growing organizations. Leadership needed direction. Campaigns needed someone to shape the thinking behind them. And execution needed someone who could actually see it through.
I did that work for long enough that when the opportunity came to acquire Creative Marketing Strategies, it was an easy yes. A twenty-year-old agency with a solid foundation to execute. Four years later it's still the engine behind the work I lead.
Today that's still exactly what I do.
Today that's still exactly what I do. I step in as the marketing leader, get clear on where the organization is headed, and make sure the work reflects that.
And it always comes back to the same three things.
Strategy. Ideation. Execution.
When these three things work together, everything else gets easier.
Strategy
we get clear on where you're headed and what marketing needs to do to get you there.
Ideation
we turn that into campaigns and ideas worth paying attention to.
Execution
then we actually do the work and create processes for replication each year.
Most organizations I work with aren't struggling because their team isn't trying. They're struggling because no one is connecting the dots between where they're headed and what the marketing is actually doing.
That's the gap I step into — and honestly, it's my favorite place to work.
Strategy backed by Execution
Creative Marketing Strategies is my full-service agency and the execution engine behind everything I lead as a fractional CMO.
- Digital marketing
- Website design and development
- Print and integrated marketing
- Video production and storytelling
- Brand and campaign strategy
You get senior marketing leadership and a seasoned team behind it, without building an internal department or juggling multiple vendors.
Experience Across Sectors
Twenty years across industries that most marketing leaders never touch together.
Nonprofit & Community
Organizations driving social impact and community development
Healthcare Systems
Regional health providers and care organizations
Financial Institutions
Community banks and financial service providers
Workforce & Economic Development
Initiatives supporting regional growth and opportunity
Entrepreneurship and Founder-Led Businesses
Launching new ideas and building growing companies
Manufacturing & Regional Business
Companies building products and driving local economies
The organizations are different. The pattern never is.
Marketing doesn't get complicated because something went wrong.
It gets complicated because
things are going right.
Ready to Transform Your Marketing?
Let's talk about where your brand is now, where you want it to go, and how we'll get there together.