This episode we're joined by Molly Cookson Senior PR & Social Media Manager at First Choice, TUI. As well as running a breadth of successful influencer campaigns, such as the highly acclaimed 'Better Boys Trip', Molly has built her own audience with friend Beth on TikTok as well as shares industry perspectives on all things influencers and why they should be seen as part of the overall channel mix across marketing, communications and PR.

As well as exploring her approach with the Better Boys Trip, we unpick some of the do's and don'ts when it comes to identifying, briefing and managing good influencer strategies plus the campaigns and accounts she recommends we check out.

Things referenced

• Influencer Rob Adcock on the campaign he did with First Choice using train fare refunds
• First Choice's Better Boys Trip campaign featuring George Clarke and friends
• Garnier's 2025 Dull to Brighton influencer campaign
• LinkedIn accounts to check out: Nat Cortezar, CEO and Founder of The Good Egg influencer agency and System1 Group who recently published this report with TikTok, The Long and Short(form) of it

You can find Molly on LinkedIn too and at Molly and Beth on TikTok

If you have any questions about the Hear It Podcast, would like to pitch a guest or are interesting in sponsoring next season, get in touch at info@threadandfable.com

If you're interested in working with Rebecca at Thread & Fable contact rebecca@threadandfable.com

We're talking all things Gen Z/youth moral panics this episode with Konrad Collao, founder of Craft, the strategic insight agency that put humans at the heart of decison-making.

You can follow Konrad on LinkedIn here and find out more about Craft here.

We talk about Craft's research for Channel 4 and other youth publications they've done;

Other things Konrad talks about

Movember's work with The Good Side about young men's health in a digital world

Book recommendations

• Bobby Duffy's Generations and Perils of Perception
• Dr Eliza Filby, Inheritocracy
• Sam Friedman, the Class Ceiling and Born to Rule
• Jonathan Hait, the Anxious Generation and the Righteous Mind

This episode we speak with Lyndsay McDade, Fearless Scotland Manager at Crimestoppers, the charity offering support to 11-18 year olds to raise awareness of issues relating to crime as well as providing anonymous ways to report it. A partnership with Police Scotland and the Scottish Government led to a campaign to tackle the rise in sextortion tacking children and young people, a large proportion of which are male.

Connect with Lyndsay on LinkedIn and here’s more about Fearless

Find out more about their Sextortion campaign here

Things Lyndsay talks about

• The importance of not assuming anything around understanding of a topic, including the language used
• Co-creation that is continued throughout a process (i.e. not just asking for input then stopping), seeing that through to results and impact
• Making the process enjoyable for young people, bring food, pay for time!
• Getting ‘out there’ and connecting with communities; building real life connections with groups and organisations working with key audiences and/or topics related to your work

Recommendations

• Young Scot for their excellent youth content
• Centre for Social Justice and their report Lost Boys
• CLD Talks for their podcast on local activity in Scotland
• The British Transport Police on TikTok

This episode we're speaking with Tom Cullen, who's the co-founder of opinion sharing app Zoplo. With a growing Gen Z audience of 80k plus, numerous viral social accounts popularising discussion topics the app shares, Tom talks about building a youth-focused app, involving them in the process, and developing content that engages and entertains youth audiences.

Find out more about Zoplo

Follow Tom on LinkedIn

The three things Tom recommends to better engage youth audiences are; making conversations about them rather than your own brand/organisation, join the conversation in an authentic way rather than trying to 'speak Gen Z', and use humour when you can, which might involve better understanding the content world they're in.

Extending this to working with young creators, Tom talks about the importance of structure and not assuming anything about work experience and practice to ensure clear communications.

Books Tom recommends; Polling Unpacked: The History, Uses and Abuses of Political Opinion Polls by Mark Pack

and Pixar Storytelling: Rules for Effective Storytelling

TikTok accounts he recommends;

Pick'em (@pickemstore)

Brenden @brendenlmao

European Kid @theeuropeankid

Zoplo on TikTok @Zoplohalloffame

We’re joined by Yas Devi, Social Media Executive at RSPB and the brains behind the unhinged and wonderful ‘Bird of the Week’ and the rest of the charity’s TikTok channel. We talk about TikTok strategy, measures of success, cultural relevance and get Yas’s top accounts to follow as well as tips for success on the platform.

Follow Yas on LinkedIn here and check out the RSPB TikTok @rspb here

TikTok accounts Yas recommends we check out

• National Trust
• WWF UK
• Mind
• Ryanair
• Duolingo
• Scrub Daddy
• Empire State Building
• RNLI

Three best bits of advice for using TikTok to better engage a youth audience? Firstly, bringing the conversation to young people on the platform and never talking at them. The focus for the channel has been on building a community and conversation. Secondly, being authentic and organic on TikTok and using its tools to edit and develop content so that it works on there rather than being repurposed from other channels. Third, staying consistent with posting content, even when some don’t get big reach, consistency is key.

Here's a link to the University of Exeter research mentioned about connecting digital nature to real life connection with nature.

Other recommendations for LinkedIn follows include TikTok, Duolingo, Monzo, Girls in Marketing

If you like this episode and would like to put forward a guest, discuss sponsorship or work with Thread & Fable email info@threadandfable.com

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This episode we hear from Alfie Laurence, creator and founder of Student Travel Tips, a resource and community that empowers students to embrace the world of travel. Young people are set to be the UK’s most prolific travellers in 2024 and we explore why this generation of British students are so driven to explore and why traditional content has fallen short. Alfie’s own experiences highlighted the gaps that existed, leading to the creation of Student Travel Tips.

https://www.studenttraveltips.co.uk/

https://www.instagram.com/studenttraveltipsuk/

Things Alfie talks about

Amica App, former app that focused on creating safe space for solo female travellers

Earthrise Studio, environmental storytelling media company https://www.earthrise.studio/

Your Juno, Fintech platform, gamifying financial education focusing on women and non-binary people. https://www.yourjuno.co/

Damon Dominique, travel community and newsletter https://damondominique.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/damondominique

We’re talking Gen Z talent and employer branding with Dereck Maruma, Commercial Manager at Tapin Media, a youth-focused media and marketing agency specialising in bridging the gap between students and employers. We explore what organisations need to be doing to better attract and retain Gen Z talent and what Tapin’s ‘This is Black Gen Z’ report can tell us about diversifying youth talent to ensure success for young employees, through the recruitment process and once they are in role.

Connect with Dereck on LinkedIn

Find out more about Tapin Media

Read the This is Black Gen Z Report

Things we talk about

Salary transparency: a recent study found around half of jobs on LinkedIn don’t give salary details while Labour’s Plan to Make Work Pay was published ahead of the election and sets outs reforms which includes salary transparency.

Campaigners call for Afro hair to become protected characteristic in the Equality Act – linked to discussion on being yourself in job interviews.

Insight from The Access Platform which references university EDI policies as being a factor international students consider as part of their decision-making process.

#QuitTok the rise of publicly quitting on TikTok

Top 3 Tips for Gen Z Employer Branding

• Embrace social channels
• Diversify your content
• Authenticity and transparency

Examples of brands doing it well

Gymshark on LinkedIn, Diageo on Instagram, Currys on TikTok and Go Daddy Life example on their website.

Other things to check out

The Employer Brand Space on LinkedIn, BYP Network and Hung Lee

We’re speaking with Oli Hills, CEO of Nonsensical, the agency that helps clients win on TikTok. Having taken over Updates Media Ltd in 2017 after a career in investment management, he evolved it into Nonsensical just as the pandemic hit and TikTok rocketed. In this episode we talk about how to get the right strategic approach for the platform to better engage youth audiences, how to avoid doing it badly and who’s doing it really well. It’s packed full of tips and advice!

You can find out about Nonsensical here and connect with Oli on LinkedIn here and Twitter (X) here plus the Nonsensical blog which is worth a read.

Things we talk about

Approach to organic strategy and having multiple accounts for different audiences

• Gymshark men and women accounts on TikTok
• Duolingo region specific accounts UK and France for example
• The Works on books and Oli discussses how they could split this out to books and parents

Paid ads approach and finding the right kind of content your audience might be engaging with

• Mukbangs
• Restaurant reviews and tours

Other accounts we mention

• Urban Tandoor Bristol – the restaurant who have amassed over 10m likes through their parody songs
• Duolingo and Ryanair may not need TikTok but they are brands who land their tone of voice well
• Sheer Luxe; digital fashion and lifestyle publication whose team operate as influencers within the content
• Luxe Collective: luxury fashion buying second hand. Interviews with owners, provides a depth of content as well as the shopping option
• RSPB: and how their Bird of the Week is a fun, platform relevant way to engage Gen Z with bird info.

Attribution and it’s challenges with TikTok

• Attribution tools like Fospha
• Post purchase/engagement surveys

Three top tips for winning on TikTok

• Organic: define your biggest audience that has something in common and focus on creating content on just that audience.
• Creative: really thing about being native, authentic, genuine and looks/feels like TikTok
• Repeatable, scalable style of content that you can repeat

Recommendations

• TikTok for Business on LinkedIn
• Disney’s Creativity Inc book