Blogosphere: Serious Influence

Today on bCreator: Serious Influence, Alice Audley (bCreator's founder) is joined by Holly Brooker. Holly is a global marketing director and has worked at the likes of Spotify, Acast, Class Pass and Airbnb.

Today on bCreator: Serious Influence, Alice Audley (bCreator's founder) is joined by Brontë King. Brontë is a lifestyle, fashion and travel content creator, with a dedicated female following. She is everybody's online bestie with style to die for and real talk to make you laugh until your ribs hurt. While her platform started with her documenting her travels to the most beautiful destinations around the world with her friends and family, she is now the founder of Gals Who Graduate, an online community for young female graduates who are trying to navigate life as twenty-something-year-olds. The group started on Facebook in 2019 when Brontë saw a gap in the internet landscape for a support platform that focussed on graduates and young female professionals specifically. Since then, the group has grown membership of over seventy-five thousand on Facebook and over forty-three thousand on Instagram, hosting online socials and talks with recruiters and brands who are hiring graduates. Brontë started the sub group, Gals Who Travel, in 2022. By sharing her own travels it was apparent her followers were interested in joining her and like-minded females to explore new places. Brontë partnered with TruTravels to provide safe female only trips which have so far launched in Bali and Thailand, with more destinations being announced for 2023.

Today on bCreator: Serious Influence, Alice Audley (bCreator's founder) is joined by Camilla Craven. Camilla is a brand, communications and social strategist, marketeer and commercially astute leader.  She's regarded as one of the leading voices in brand advocacy.  She's worked with over 40 brands, across 20 countries, ranging from pre-seed to fast-scaling brands from series A to unicorns, to household established brands.  After 13 years of working in house (Charlotte Tilbury, FaceGym, Vashi and Benefit Cosmetics) and in one of the UK's leading comms agencies, Camilla now operates as a marketing & comms consultant, advisor and Fractional CMO. Her superpower is building brand awareness quickly across the full marketing mix, no matter the budget or size of the team.  In addition to her roles, she is a Mentor, founder of the Brand & Marketing Collective – a community of marketing leaders – and regularly judges industry awards.  Camilla is Anglo American, and whilst spends significant time between the UK & US, she lives in Wandsworth with her husband Charles, and two cat children Coco & Kiki.

Today on bCreator: Serious Influence, Alice Audley (bCreator's founder) is joined by Britt Bagnall, who is the founder of Influencer Marketing Agency Cherry Pick Talent. Britt founded Cherry Pick in 2016 as a way to support brands who wanted to make influencers a part of their marketing day in and day out. Since CPT do not represent any talent, they are in a position to act as an extension of brands' marketing teams and focus on cherry picking the right talent for every activation and moment.  Clients range from Epic Games to HelloFresh to Glasses Direct to Playtika and enlist the help and social power from influencers to celebrities to athletes to pets! 

In today's episode of bCreator: Serious Influence, Alice Audley (bCreator's founder) is joined by Lucy Loveridge, who the the Managing Director of YMU's social division.

Today on bCreator: Serious Influence, Alice Audley (bCreator's founder) is joined by Esme Rice, who is the Influencer Practice Lead, Worldwide at Mindshare

In today's episode of bCreator: Serious Influence, Alice Audley (bCreator's founder) is joined by Shane Riley, who is Vice President of International Sales & Marketing at Virgin Voyages. Virgin Voyages are the headline sponsor of the bCreator Awards 2023.

In today's episode of bCreator: Serious Influence, Alice Audley (bCreator's founder) is joined by Lucrèce Sicat, who is Head of Creator Marketing, EU at Amazon.

In today's episode of bCreator: Serious Influence, Alice Audley (bCreator's founder) is joined by travel creators Lloyd and Yaya of Hand Luggage Only. Founded in 2014 whilst Lloyd and Yaya were studying, the pair have since built their travel blog into a global sensation that gets over an impressive 1 million monthly unique visitors.  Focusing on attainable travel, Lloyd and Yaya have inspired thousands with their stunning content and helpful tips. The duo expanded their travel brand across all the major social networks, striking particular success on Pinterest, where they gain over 34 million impressions a month, and TikTok where they have over 1M followers. They have also built up an impressive portfolio of brand partnerships such as Aperol, Expedia, Disney, Microsoft, Eurotunnel, Hilton, Accor & Meta. When Lloyd and Yaya aren't travelling across the globe, they are also avid authors and recently published their first novel ‘Hand Luggage Only: Great Britain' - the must-have travel guide for exploring Great Britain's finest. The book was published by Hardie Grant Books in July 2021 in the UK, Australia and the USA.

Today on Blogosphere: Serious Influence, Alice Audley (Blogosphere's founder) speaks to Grace Victory, who won Influencer of the Year at the 2021 Blogosphere Awards. Grace is the cover star of issue 24 of the magazine, which you can order direct through Blogosphere's website here: https://www.blogosphere.biz/shop/issue-24-grace-victory-single-print-edition/

In this week's episode of Blogosphere: Serious Influence, Alice Audley (Blogosphere's founder) speaks to Harriet (Harri) Berridge, who is an Intellectual Assets Manager at law firm Stobbs.

In this week's episode of Blogosphere: Serious Influence, Alice Audley (Blogosphere's founder) speaks to Natasha Courtenay-Smith, who is the CEO and Co-Founder of Bolt Digital. Bolt Digital specialises in accelerating growth of direct to consumer brands across health, lifestyle and beauty. They have worked with the likes of Absolute Collagen, The Inkey List and more.

In this week's episode of Blogosphere: Serious Influence, Alice Audley (Blogosphere's founder) speaks to Jessica Paine, who is the Chief Community Officer at SyncVault. SyncVault is a music platform, which rewards creators for using claim-free music on their content. 

In this week's episode of Blogosphere: Serious Influence, Alice Audley (Blogosphere's founder) speaks to Gabrielė Palepšaitė, who is the Influencer Marketing Creative Strategy Lead for EMEA and LATAM at cyber security firm Surfshark. Surfshark was founded in 2018 and offers products such as a virtual private network service, a data leak detection system, and a private search tool.

In this week's episode of Blogosphere: Serious Influence, Alice Audley (Blogosphere's founder) speaks to Sedge Beswick, who is the Founder and Managing Director of SEEN Connects. As MD and Founder, she has grown the award-winning innovative influencer marketing agency SEEN Connects from the ground up, expanding it internationally. Before setting up Connects and working with brands like Nike, eBay and Panasonic, Sedge shaped Red Bull and ASOS' social and influencer strategies.

In this week's episode of Blogosphere: Serious Influence, Alice Audley (Blogosphere's founder) speaks to Geo West. Geo is an influencer marketing expert with over 12 years' experience in the space. She started her career working for creator Patricia Bright, and subsequently took roles at Benefit Cosmetics, L'Oreal and Charlotte Tilbury. Geo set up her own influencer marketing agency HappyCat, and earlier this year took a position at EA Games as Global Producer of Influencer Creative.

Melanie Kentish is Group Director of Influencers Sky responsible for overseeing Entertainment, Cinema, Kids, Sports, VIP and products. Mel is a veteran in the space with over 15 years experience working in the field and has consulted for many brands such as Samsung, Sony, Nails Inc, Kelloggs, GAP, Rolls-Royce and Boots. Most recently, she's most well known for the launch of Sky Glass, which saw over 200 creators produce over 3000 pieces of content.

* Uploaded in November 2021. This podcast was recorded pre-Covid in Jan 2020, but was previously available only to Blogosphere Community members. It has some great podcasting tips - and we have now decided to share it here too. In this week's episode of Blogosphere: Serious Influence, Alice Audley (Blogosphere's founder) speaks to Emma Gunavardhana, who is a podcaster and broadcaster. Emma launched her podcast ‘The Emma Guns Show' five years ago, and has had more than four million downloads in the last two. Before becoming a podcaster, Emma spent nearly a decade as Beauty Editor of OK! magazine.

In this week’s episode of Blogosphere: Serious Influence, Alice Audley (Blogosphere’s founder) speaks to Jamie Spafford. Jamie is one of the four founders of Sorted Food, which started as a YouTube channel back in 2009. It has now grown into a 20 plus team and a bonafide business.

In this week’s episode of Blogosphere: Serious Influence, Alice Audley (Blogosphere’s founder) speaks to Vanessa Vyapooree. Vanessa is the business partner at Camel London Creatives, which is an influencer talent and management consultancy that brings brands together with their diverse influencers through tailored social media campaigns.

In this week’s episode of Blogosphere: Serious Influence, Alice Audley (Blogosphere’s founder) speaks to Jennifer Quigley-Jones. Jennifer is the founder and CEO of Digital Voices, which is a YouTube specialist influencer marketing agency based in London.

In this week’s episode of Blogosphere: Serious Influence, Alice Audley (Blogosphere’s founder) speaks to Danny Lowney, who is the MD of influencer management company Sixteenth Talent. Danny founded Sixteenth, whose roster includes Carly Rowena, Gabriel Sey and Jack Edwards, in 2017 after seeing the power of influencers when working on growth strategy at a start-up in London.

In this week’s episode of Blogosphere: Serious Influence, Alice Audley (Blogosphere’s founder) speaks to influencer Hannah Witton, who is a YouTuber, Podcaster and Author. Hannah joined YouTube in 2009 and has first-hand experience of working with MCNs, management and brands. She recently launched an event called Creator Table Talks, where influencers can meet and candidly discuss the business side of the industry.

In this week’s episode of Blogosphere: Serious Influence, Alice Audley (Blogosphere’s founder) speaks to influencer Emily Trenouth, who is Head of Influencer Marketing Strategy at Mediacom. Before moving to Mediacom, Emily worked at both Takumi and Tribe – and saw the micro-influencer movement evolve first-hand. She has a 360 approach to influencer marketing and is seeing a continued rise in budgets into the space.

In this week's episode of Blogosphere: Serious Influence, Alice Audley (Blogosphere’s founder) speaks to Sir Martin Sorrell, who is the founder of S4 capital – a digital advertising and marketing services company established in May 2018.  S4’s strategy is to build a purely digital advertising and marketing services business by integrating leading businesses in three areas: first-party data, digital content and digital media planning and buying. Before S4 capital, Sir Martin was the chief executive of the world’s largest advertising and PR group WPP, which he founded in 1985 after taking a controlling stake in a small UK manufacturer of wire baskets and teapots called Wire and Plastic Products. Last year, Media Monks – S4 capital’s digital content arm merged with Amsterdam-based influencer-marketing network IMA.

In this week's episode of Blogosphere: Serious Influence, we have a special installment. It is a panel discussion from this year's Blogosphere Festival all about diversity within influencer marketing campaigns without tokenism. The panel is hosted by Blogosphere's creative director Elaine Malone, and the panellists are Kemi Alemoru (of Gal-dem), Lottie L'Amour, Grace Victory and Jamie Windust.

In this week’s episode of Blogosphere: Serious Influence, Alice Audley (Blogosphere’s founder) speaks to influencer Lewys Ball, known online as Looking for Lewys. Lewys started his YouTube channel as a child, and has been balancing uploading content with his studies - first at school and then at university - for around a decade. He has worked on many brand campaigns including Rimmel. Series 3 of Blogosphere: Serious Influence is sponsored by the music licensing platform, Lickd (https://lickd.co/) .

In this week’s episode of Blogosphere: Serious Influence, Alice Audley (Blogosphere’s founder) speaks to Sam Chapman, of Pixiwoo, and Phil Hughes, who is the COO of Gleam. Sam (one of the UK's first influencers) and Phil (a trained lawyer) have both been involved in the influencer space for more than a decade, and have first hand experience of brand deals, contracts, licensing and rights. Series 3 of Blogosphere: Serious Influence is sponsored by the music licensing platform, Lickd (https://lickd.co/) .

In this week’s episode of Blogosphere: Serious Influence, Alice Audley (Blogosphere’s founder) speaks to parenting influencer Matt Coyne, of Man vs Baby. Matt wrote a post about being a new parent on Facebook in 2015, which went viral. Since then he's built up an audience of more than 250,000, written two best-selling books and won parenting influencer of the year at the Blogosphere Awards 2019. Matt discusses the ins and outs of publishing, how the online world is at risk of becoming a 'boring' place as influencers try to be brand safe, and how he deals with trolls. Series 3 of Blogosphere: Serious Influence is sponsored by the music licensing platform, Lickd (https://lickd.co/browse/collection/blogosphere-festival-2019?show-sign-up&utm_source=blogosphere&utm_medium=blogosphere&utm_campaign=blogosphere) .

In this week’s episode of Blogosphere: Serious Influence, Alice Audley (Blogosphere’s founder) speaks to Lorna Luxe, who is an Instagrammer and Influencer. And Blogosphere magazine's issue 22 cover star, which you can order now -> https://www.blogosphere.biz/shop/subscription/ Lorna started posting regularly to Instagram in 2014 as a means to monitor her recovery from an eating disorder. She would post a selfie every day to hold herself accountable. Since joining the platform, she has grown to nearly one million followers and has launched a best-selling fashion collection with In The Style. Lorna discusses the importance of relationships and engaging with your community when building your brand, and her predictions for the influencer space. Series 3 of Blogosphere: Serious Influence is sponsored by the music licensing platform, Lickd

In this week’s episode of Blogosphere: Serious Influence, Alice Audley (Blogosphere’s founder) speaks to Estée Lalonde, who is a lifestyle influencer, blogger and podcaster. Estée started out online nearly a decade ago and has worked with brands including Adidas and Lancôme. She has also collaborated and brought a jewellery collection with Daisy. And she was Blogosphere magazine's first ever cover star in 2013! Estée discusses how the industry has developed, how long-term creative collaborations with brands work, ambassadorships, and that #hotelgate experience! Series 3 of Blogosphere: Serious Influence is sponsored by the music licensing platform, Lickd (https://lickd.co/) .

In this week’s episode of Blogosphere: Serious Influence, Alice Audley (Blogosphere’s founder) speaks to Alex Carapiet, who is a Business Director at influencer agency The Fifth. The Fifth is part of News UK and aims to bring transparency and accountability to the world of influencer marketing. They refer to influencers as 'storytellers'. Alex has worked on many sides of the industry, but his first instance of influencer was in blogger outreach at his first job in PR. Alex discusses the surge in influencer fees, frustrations within the industry, the key to making an influencer campaign successful, and things brands to be aware of when marketing to Gen Z. Series 3 of Blogosphere: Serious Influence is sponsored by the music licensing platform, Lickd (https://lickd.co/) .

In this week’s episode of Blogosphere: Serious Influence, Alice Audley (Blogosphere’s founder) speaks to Paul Sampson, who is the co-founder and CEO of music licensing platform Lickd. Paul has worked in the music industry for 14 years in all sorts of roles, and thus has a key knowledge of its licensing intricacies. He stumbled across the world of influencers four years ago and saw the challenges they faced accessing good music for their content, without getting copyright claims against them. He connected the dots, and Lickd was born. Paul discusses his entrepreneurial journey, the challenges in getting the music industry to adopt new routes to market, how content id and copyright claims work... and also explains Article 13 and what it means for platforms and influencers. Series 3 of Blogosphere: Serious Influence is sponsored by the music licensing platform, Lickd (https://lickd.co/) .

In this week’s episode of Blogosphere: Serious Influence, Alice Audley (Blogosphere’s founder) speaks to Adam Ward, who is an influencer marketing consultant. Adam has worked at agencies including Cake, Dare and Hey Human, and specialises in influencer marketing strategy. Now consulting at Tailify, he has a keen interest in creative and data, and illustrating what the return on investment of influencer marketing can be. Adam discusses the budgets being invested into the influencer space, why there is a great need for strategy as opposed to just execution in campaigns, as well as his predictions that there will be an increase in legal cases against influencers in the future. Series 3 of Blogosphere: Serious Influence is sponsored by the music licensing platform, Lickd (https://lickd.co/) .

In this week’s episode of Blogosphere: Serious Influence, Alice Audley (Blogosphere’s founder) speaks to Grace Beverley, the 22-year-old  Founder and Director of both TALA and B_ND, two brands quickly making their mark on the fitness and fashion industries.   Grace started her career on Instagram, where she ran a fitness account showcasing her exercise routines. The account grew quickly and she released a series of fitness guides for her audience, the success of which helped her to fund herself through Oxford University. Grace discusses the ins and outs of running ethical and sustainable businesses’, why Gen Z will be holding brands more accountable, and how having a social media process can expedite the entrepreneurial journey. Grace herself has more than a million followers on Instagram. Series 3 of Blogosphere: Serious Influence is sponsored by the music licensing platform, Lickd (https://lickd.co) .

In this week’s episode of Blogosphere: Serious Influence, Alice Audley (Blogosphere’s founder) speaks to Lucy Luke (née Skinner), who is Strategic Partner Manager: Entertainment & Creators at Facebook.  Lucy has worked for Facebook since 2015 - and before moving to the entertainment and creator team, worked within the Facebook news team. Lucy discusses Facebook's new creator pages, monetisation, the relationship between the Facebook and Instagram team, and predictions for the influencer industry.

In this week’s episode of Blogosphere: Serious Influence, Alice Audley (Blogosphere’s founder) speaks to Zoe Crawford, who works across Brand Partnerships and Events at media agency The7Stars. After working at a start-up and seeing the impact of influencers, Zoe has seen the industry develop and believes that 2019 will see the coming of age of influencer marketing. Zoe works with a range of clients on influencer marketing including Iceland and Deliveroo.

In this week’s episode of Blogosphere: Serious Influence, Alice Audley (Blogosphere’s founder) speaks to Amie Shearer, who is Head of Influencer Marketing at Mumsnet. Amie has worked in the industry since 2011, but actually started her first blog all the way back in 2006. At Mumsnet, Amie has worked with many brands on influencer campaigns including the Mumsnet x McDonald's collaboration - which won the Blogosphere Food Influencer Brand Campaign of the Year at the #BlogosphereAwards2019.

In this week’s episode of Blogosphere: Serious Influence, Alice Audley (Blogosphere’s founder) speaks to the influencer Vix Meldrew. Vix has been blogging since 2014 - covering lifestyle content. In 2018, she got to the point where she was able to quit her job as a teacher and blog full-time. In addition to brand deals, Vix has built up an impressive number of e-courses. She also does one-on-one blog coaching. Vix is vocal on the importance of diversifying your income, and also dispelling the myth that you need to have hundreds of thousands of followers to be able to make a living online.

In this week’s episode of Blogosphere: Serious Influence, Alice Audley (Blogosphere’s founder) speaks to Rahul Titus, who is Head of Influence at Ogilvy. Rahul has worked in the Influencer industry since 2010 - both in marketing and talent management roles. He has worked with influencers on campaigns for Ogilvy clients including Bacardi, TK Maxx and Vans. 

In this week’s episode of Blogosphere: Serious Influence, Alice Audley (Blogosphere’s founder) speaks to the influencer Katie Snooks. Katie has been blogging since 2009, and has worked with numerous brands across her social channels, which include Instagram, YouTube and, of course, her blog. She has also worked on the other side of the industry. In 2012, she joined Gleam Digital (as it was then known) and helped create content for brands' feeds. Katie is renowned for her relatability, and covers topics including sex and dating. She also produced a vlog series on her acne journey and taking Roaccutane, the first episode of which has more than 2 million views.

In this week’s episode of Blogosphere: Serious Influence, Alice Audley (Blogosphere’s founder) speaks to Nik Speller who is Head of Campaigns at the aptly-named Influencer Agency - Influencer. Nik has a career history that spans across data, digital publishing and a bit of blogging. After joining the agency world, he worked across influencer marketing at Havas before becoming a member of the Influencer team (which is co-founded by Caspar Lee) last year. Nik, who is known for his strong stance on combatting influencer fraud, talks to Alice about budgets, the importance of 'narratives' in influencer marketing... and his predictions for the industry.

In this week’s episode of Blogosphere: Serious Influence, Alice Audley (Blogosphere’s founder) speaks to Steph Yeboah who has been part of the social media world for more than a decade.  Steph, whose blog is called Nerd About Town, uses her online platforms to share her life, with a focus on plus-size fashion.  Steph has also worked on the other side of the industry and organised influencer campaigns herself. Alice and Steph discuss creating influencer campaigns, diversity and the true body positivity movement.

In this week’s episode of Blogosphere: Serious Influence, Alice Audley (Blogosphere’s founder) speaks to Dom Smales who is Founder and CEO of the digital-talent management company Gleam Futures.  Dom founded Gleam in 2010 and it was the first influencer talent management company in the UK. The business now has offices in LA and Sydney, too. Gleam's UK talent include Zoe Sugg, Jim Chapman and Mrs Hinch. Alice and Dom discuss the industry's evolution, noise in the marketplace and _that_ Panorama documentary.

In this week’s episode of Blogosphere: Serious Influence, Blogosphere’s founder Alice Audley speaks to Tom Cornish who is Influencer Marketing Director at Wavemaker. Wavemaker is the second largest media agency network in the world, and its influencer division works on a very data driven approach - including a guaranteed engagements model. Alice and Tom discuss data, examples of successful influencer campaigns and the potential automation of the industry.

On Wednesday 30th January, we brought our podcast - Serious Influence - to a live event. Under discussion was - 'What makes a great influencer campaign in 2019?' The panel was hosted by Blogosphere's founder Alice Audley and the panellists were - Sara Tasker (Me and Orla - Influencer), Rupa Shah (HashtagAd founder and ASA regulations expert), Kat Perriam (Head of Influencer Marketing, Google Hardware), Nik Speller (Head of Campaigns, Influencer) and Danny Defreitas (Influencer).

In this episode of Blogosphere: Serious Influence, Alice Audley (Blogosphere’s founder) speaks to Nic Yeeles, who is the co-founder and CEO of technology company Peg. Peg is a business designed to streamline all aspects of influencer marketing - from finding which influencers to work with to reporting on the return on investment of campaigns. Nic first became involved in the influencer industry back in 2012, when he worked for Simon Cowell's company Syco on YouTube content. Alice and Nic discuss the move in advertising spend to Instagram, the threat third-party influencer platforms pose to the industry, and the need for a strong voice to set industry standards and ultimately protect its future.

In this episode of Blogosphere: Serious Influence, Alice Audley (Blogosphere’s founder) speaks to Rupa Shah, who is an influencer marketing regulatory consultant. Rupa founded her business Hashtag Ad in 2017, after working at the ASA (Advertising Standards Authority) for 13 years, and advises brands and influencers on best practice when it comes to disclosing sponsored content. Rupa also runs the Facebook group 'The Secret Regulator', where she offers easy to follow tips on compliance to influencers in accordance to the latest ASA guidelines. Alice and Rupa discuss the evolution of sponsored content online, policies surrounding disclosure (including press trips), and how the ASA and CAP (Committee of Advertising Practice) work together.

In this episode of Blogosphere: Serious Influence, Alice Audley (Blogosphere’s founder) speaks to Kyle Galvin, who is a fashion photographer and also creates content for many of the UK's leading influencers. Kyle has worked with the likes of Victoria Magrath, Lydia Millen and Jim Chapman. He has also shot the cover of Blogosphere's 19th issue, which stars... we haven't announced that yet! Be sure to subscribe to find out first. Alice and Kyle discuss the rise in long-term influencer campaigns, the worrying trend of imitation on Instagram and the future of the industry.

In this episode of Blogosphere: Serious Influence, Alice Audley speaks to Influencer Elle Mills.  The 20 year old is a self-professed second generation influencer, and shares her perspective of growing up knowing that being a social media star could be a career.  Elle, whose YouTube channel was one of the fastest growing in the world in 2017, opens up about the pressures of fame and burning out.  Alice and Elle also discuss management and the importance of creative freedom when working on branded campaigns.

In this week's episode of Blogosphere: Serious Influence, Blogosphere's founder Alice Audley speaks to Jo Burford who is Creator Partner Community Manager at Niche. Niche is a Twitter-owned platform which helps online creators work with brands on campaigns across all types of social media including Instagram and Facebook. Jo's role involves building the Niche network across the EMEA region and facilitating partnerships between influencers and brands for marketing campaigns. Alice and Jo discuss payment terms, Niche's unique position in the industry and the development of influencer marketing budgets over the years.