Marketing advisory for startups, scale-ups and investors
Most companies try to say too much, and mostly what they care about. I help them find what their customers value, and build the journey that takes people from not knowing they need it to not wanting to switch. Senior marketing advice on brand positioning and go-to-market, as a consultant or a fractional CMO.
Former marketing leader at Wargaming and Supercell. 50+ brands at the media agency Zenith.
In Camera Lucida (1980), Roland Barthes writes about two layers of photography. The studium is the obvious one, everything the photographer puts in the frame: the moment, the subject, the scene. The punctum is a small detail that pricks you and stays: a warm or painful flash of recognition of something that makes it personal. Unlike the studium, it's not a given.
You know what pure studium looks like: it's all the content you scroll past hundreds of times a day.
Most marketing fails because it is just studium: correct, well-informed and casually ignored, especially now with AI-powered production. What it misses is the punctum, the detail that makes people care, and that detail is rarely where the brief says it is. It comes from customer truth, it sounds a little different in every culture, and once you find it, the whole strategy can be built from it.
An ongoing senior partner for founders and leadership teams of startups and scale-ups, working as a fractional CMO. I do the work myself or lead the people who do it.
Retainer, a few days a month, without a full-time hire.
A fixed-scope review before a launch, a scale-up or a move into a new market. I audit what you have and recommend the key changes. Your team takes it from there, or we continue as Advisory.
A 2–3 week project, fixed price or hourly.
A marketing view for funds, angels and accelerators. Before the round, I check whether the go-to-market holds up. After it, I help founders make it work.
Per company or as a retainer.
Hi, I'm Mariia Chernova.
Former marketing leader at Wargaming (World of Tanks) and Supercell (Clash Royale), and strategic planning director at the media agency Zenith. Media Cristal Award 2007, National Media Award 2019.
At the agency, I worked on more than 50 brands across 14 industries, from Nescafé and L'Oréal Paris to Cartier, Toyota and adidas. You can't help but see the patterns of what works and what doesn't. Without strong positioning, a budget of any size is a costly mistake.
When I joined Wargaming as marketing director for World of Tanks, my first task was to fix exactly that kind of mistake. The game was losing the West with a CIS-centric positioning, and teams were pulling in different directions. I united the team behind one strategy. Together we reworked the positioning, adapted it for key markets, cut non-strategic activities and improved the registration flow. Acquisition went from −22% to +4% year on year, on half the budget.
Punctum is my independent marketing consultancy. Before you spend on reach, I make sure you have something worth reaching people with.
Prefer email? nekosch@gmail.com LinkedIn