Battenhall

Helping clients and internal teams to implement innovation-related work, such as new and niche social media platform campaigns, and experiments that break new ground in the industry.

Senior Consultant, Innovation

Helping clients develop and roll-out their communications strategy, with a particular focus on social media/community management.

Senior Consultant

Concourse

•	Promoted to new role; helped oversee the redesign of the company website.
•	Defining marketing strategy and creating full marketing plans for the company, repositioning it as a leader in sustainability within the industry
•	Handling all social media strategy and content creation
•	Managing virtual event participation (online trade shows and webinars) and handling press requests

Marketing Manager

•	Managing marketing activations and permanent visibility projects for FMCG clients in travel retail
•	Liaising with retailers to build relationships and ensure full and timely implementation of programmes
•	Working on briefs for internal team and external parties when necessary on behalf of clients
•	Implementing toolkits and brand guidelines within activations and permanent furniture

Client Project Manager

JING Tea

•	Responsible for all trade marketing initiatives in the hospitality sector
•	Liaising with customers and distributors to support marketing activities and campaigns, from the development of bespoke menus to masterclasses and events
•	Agreeing, implementing and evaluating the brand’s participation at relevant industry trade events 
•	Establishing and overseeing partnerships with industry associations and potential brand partners
•	Developing proposals for tenders, head office deals and other prospective customers
•	Managing a Trade Marketing Assistant

Trade Marketing Manager

Beam Suntory

* Brand development in the travel retail/duty free segment for spirits brands such as Bowmore, Laphroaig, Jim Beam, Maker's Mark, Courvoisier, Yamazaki and Hibiki
* Responsibility over customers' marketing budgets
* Managing and implementing promotional activities at airports
* Identifying local opportunities through networking and influencing
* Training staff on brand and category knowledge

Customer Marketing Manager

Freelance Writer and Blogger

* Writing freelance features for a range of publications
* Corporate translation work

Freelance Journalist 

CUBICLE 7 ENTERTAINMENT LTD

* Developing the publisher's presence within social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter
* Managing PR opportunities and establishing contacts within key specialist media outlets and blogs 
* Producing content for the company's website
* Attending trade shows and events
* Short-term contract

Social Media and Marketing Manager

William Grant & Sons

* Brand development in the travel retail/duty free segment for spirits brands such as Glenfiddich, Hendrick's, The Balvenie, Tullamore DEW and Monkey Shoulder 
* Implementing promotional activities at airports
* Identifying local opportunities through networking and influencing
* Managing POS production, order and budgeting
* Attending trade shows and events, liaising with stakeholders of all levels from senior executives to shop staff
* Training staff on brand and category knowledge, being the team expert on spirits

Promotion and Merchandising Executive

Metropolis Business Media

* Redeveloping DFNIonline.com, liaising directly with the IT and design teams
* Responsible for increasing traffic on DFNIonline.com from around 3,500 unique visitors in November 2007 to over 23,000 in November 2012, and for establishing the magazine’s social media presence on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter
* Establishing key contacts with industry stakeholders that led to exclusive interviews and breaking news stories, including retailers and luxury brands
* Liaising with and managing freelance contributors and their output on a regular basis
* Travelling to events, conferences and to chase stories in four continents

Deputy Editor

Sportstranslations

* Translating copy on sports ranging from football to rallying
* Translating official communications from entities such as FIFA to local federations
* Working languages: German, English, French and Spanish to Portuguese

Translator (freelancer)

Revista Paradoxo

* Writing film reviews, culture and entertainment features and interviews for Brazilian weekly webzine Revista Paradoxo.

UK correspondent (freelancer)

At Battenhall, I help clients and internal teams to implement innovation-related work, such as new and niche social media platform campaigns, and experiments that break new ground in the industry. I have over 20 years of experience in marketing, communications, and project management, with a focus on social media and community management.

I am a CIM Member and a lifelong learner, always eager to explore new trends, tools, and strategies in the digital space. I have a passion for sustainability and social impact, and I enjoy working with clients and colleagues who share this vision. I am also a proud geek, a dog lover, and a Wordle enthusiast.

Fun fact: I once slept through an earthquake in Japan.

Nicole Mezzasalma

I’m in a lot of networking groups, and a common theme at the moment is how tough the job market is right now.

Freelancers, full timers, it doesn’t matter – many people are struggling to find a new role after redundancy, or to get regular client work if they work for themselves.

There’s also a spate of what looks like phantom roles being advertised on LinkedIn, which get hundreds of applications only to reappear after a month or two.  

So today I’m doing something a bit different: using my platform (small but perfectly formed!) to help connect job seekers with anyone who’s hiring. 

The rules are simple: if you’re looking for work, comment saying what you do or what your ideal job is. If you’re hiring, let us know what positions you have open, and the best way to apply to them. 

Hopefully this way we can all do a little bit to give someone who may be struggling a boost before the festive period.  

And if you feel like sharing a similar post to your own feed to continue the virtuous circle, please do! 

PS: I know being out of work is no laughing matter (I’ve been through redundancy twice), but the meme is relevant and hopefully will resonate with some!

Senior Consultant @ Battenhall | Social Media, Innovation and General Geekery | MCIM | MarketingKind Member

Meme of man riding a bicycle in three acts:
First, he’s riding with a caption “looking for a new job”
Then he’s losing his balance and the caption reads “spend all day on applications”
Finally, he’s fallen on the ground and the caption says “no response”.

I'm a big believer in the power of sharing knowledge, which is one of the reasons I enjoy attending and speaking at events so much.

So I was incredibly honoured when the lovely team at SocialDay ® asked me to be a part of their Programme Committee for Social Media Fest 2026, helping to define the topics and speakers at the event.

I have been attending the event for a few years now, and am excited to have a say in shaping the agenda for what will undoubtedly be another stellar experience.

That said, if you'd love to speak at Social Media Fest 2026, submissions are now open and you don't need previous experience to apply! Just make sure you make a compelling case and have an interesting topic which will still be relevant in six months' time. 

(And if you use AI to complete your entry, I may notice it, so do it at your own peril – unless you're speaking about AI, in which case that is encouraged.) 🤣

Keen to take the stage? Let us know here: https://lnkd.in/eF_3aFJK

An infographic introducing three of the Social Media Fest Committee members: a blonde lady called Ruth Lee, a brunette woman called Nicole Mezzasalma, and a white man wearing glasses called Marcus Foley.

If you could see anyone speak on stage at a social media event, who would it be and why?

And if there are any topics you'd love to hear about, what would they be?

As part of my role as a member of the Social Media Fest steering committee for 2026, that's the question we've been asking: who'd be on our speaker wish list, and what themes shouldn't we miss.

I have thoughts on this (of course), but I want to hear yours. So hit me with your suggestions: content creators who are killing it, brands that you're jealous of, burning questions you need an answer to – I want all of it.

Feel free to tag anyone you think is brilliant and should be on stage talking about it too!

A photo of a large event from the back of the audience but focusing on a stage, where three women and a man sit on a panel about AI in social media.

My LinkedIn feed this week has been dominated by two things: gender swapping and fake apologies.

The first one I already covered in a different post, so today we'll focus on the second bit. 

You may have seen on other social media platforms a newish trend to post fake apology letters – essentially a way to humblebrag about your products or services. The format is the same: an "official apology" statement which actually lists the benefits of your brand instead.

My favourite so far was seeing a brand issuing an apology for not being able to avoid the temptation of jumping onto the apology trend – so meta! 🤣

However, not everyone is a fan of this trend (I'm personally one of them), and some organisations have missed the mark when trying to look cool (see the UK's Department of Education).

Which brings me nicely to Battenhall's annual Year Ahead of Social report, because this year one of the things we flagged is trend fatigue, and how brands need to switch things up as consumers are more switched on than ever, and ready to pounce on inauthentic or bandwagonny (is that even a word?) behaviour.

We called it "The End of the Trend", which of course doesn't mean trends will stop existing, but it does highlight that copying everyone else is not how you stand out in a crowded social space. Kudos to Molly and John for a very thought-provoking piece!

You can of course read the full report right now and for free here: https://lnkd.in/eFTnc_Qm

screenshot of a report that reads "End of the Trend – Molly Redmond and John Iglesias explore how and why trend fatigue is reshaping content marketing"

includes pictures of a smiley white woman with curly hair and a man with light hair wearing a turtleneck jumper.

LinkedIn has quietly responded to the questions about how someone’s gender may influence your visibility.

In an engineering blog posted this week, the platform categorically states that demographic information such as gender, race or age is not used by their AI systems to determine the visibility of any content, profiles or posts. 

They also addressed why different but similar posts get different levels of engagement, and the answer here is a bit less clear. 

Essentially, hundreds of signals including your position, industry, network and activity are used to determine what content appears on anyone’s feed.

“A side-by-side snapshot of your own feed updates that are not perfectly representative, or equal in reach, doesn’t automatically imply unfair treatment or bias,” the blog adds.

It also says competition due to an increased volume of posts in recent years also has an impact. 

Since posting about the gender swap experiments on LinkedIn earlier this week, I have seen many more of these that seem to confirm that changing your gender does not have a significant impact on reach. 

The question then becomes: what content has been used to trained the LinkedIn LLM and algorithm, and how is the platform tracking whether there is bias in any way, shape or form due to the AI?

And on the competition point, what is LinkedIn doing to differentiate AI slop from truly original content, if anything? We know there are plenty of creators with big followings – thus imbued with implied trust and authority – who use AI, pods and other automations, which are technically against the terms of service…

Too much for a Saturday morning, maybe? When else do we have time for a long read and a long think? 😅

Here’s the full blog for reference:

Open article: Putting members first: testing and measuring how content appears in your Feed by linkedin.com

Putting members first: testing and measuring how content appears in your Feed

Older adults (early Gen X and Boomers, if you care about that sort of thing) are watching more influencer content than ever on social media.

New research from Ampere Analysis shows 55 to 64 year olds are increasingly getting into influencer videos on platforms like YouTube and TikTok. In the US, 54% of adults in that age group reported watching influencer content at least weekly in Q3 2025 (up from 44% in the first quarter of 2020). In the UK, the proportion within that cohort rose to 38% from 30% in that same time period.

Interestingly, adults aged 55-64 delivered the highest growth in YouTube’s monthly viewing between Q1 2020 and Q3 2025, up by 25% in the US and 14% in the UK. 

Among all internet users from the US and the UK, 70% watch influencer videos at least once a week, up 18% since the first quarter of 2020.

While the research doesn't specify what types of influencers this older group follows, I'd imagine it will be very varied – but likely these will include peers, older creators, and business influencers as well as those focused on niche interests (ie Critical Role for TTRPG fans).

All of this to say: if your brand is only focusing on Gen Z influencers, you may be missing a trick, depending on who your target audience is.

Bangers and Balls

Bangers and Balls is a food brand based on connection, speaking to a fun-loving audience, with a storytelling voice, making them feel full of child-like wonder and curiosity as they become high on life,

Bangers and Balls started with a mission to put seasonal food at the heart of the British Kitchen Table. In 2017 we launched with a Pop up Supper Club at  Time Out Award Winning Bar Little Nans in Deptford.

Since then we have been creating recipes with the tips and roots of exciting vegetables, foraged food and nose to tail. We are starting a Revolution from your Kitchen Table. Teaching our amazing Revolutionaries how to preserve one seasonal of foraged ingredient a week in our membership. 

We have appeared on Channel Four, in numerous national and international press including; Daily Mail, The Sun, The Guardian, the i, Newsweek, Metro and been invited onto BBC Radio regularly to share tales of fairytale foraging, talk about food history from have a good natter. We also have our own radio show Around the Kitchen Table and will be launching our podcast soon. 


We have ambitions: to show the world you can be happier when you are in tune with the seasons while creating amazing memories and making the world a better place for future generations.

We have a vision to create a successful brand that has its roots in mental health and we want to stay strong to our values while working with you, our diners and revolutionaries. 

To be the change and write the story together.

We are not perfect and don’t get everything right but we are honest and that is how we can all be the catalyst for change. Send me a message and see how you can get involved today.

Co-Founder

Blue Platypus.

At Blue Platypus we believe everybody has a story to tell.

We set up Blue Platypus, a creature people couldn't believe existed. An agency that tells great stories, engages your audience and is available to everyone at a surprising fair price. 

You can use us for a one off video, a product launch right through to an integrated marketing campaign. 

Get in touch with us today at imogentinkler@gmail.com

Co Founder

Live Better With

Live Better With is here to make everyday living a little bit better for the millions of people living with cancer all over the world.
Together with the cancer community, we handpick products that help ease symptoms and side effects, and improve the quality of day-to-day life.
Uniquely, we group all the products by how someone might be feeling (e.g., “Feeling sick” or “Can’t sleep”), so it’s very easy to discover all the relevant and helpful things that have worked for others with the same need as you.

Head of Marketing and Partnerships

Family and Childcare Trust

The Family and Childcare Trust works to make the UK a better place for families. Our vision is of a society where government, business and communities do all they can to support every family to thrive. 
●	Member of the Senior Management Team.  Involved in shaping the organisation’s vision and goals, including the delivery of a restructure
●	Developed and implemented a corporate strategy to expand income streams, identified commercially viable products in order to increase income.  
●	Created economical behavioural change across the UK through our shaping work for shared parental leave. As well as our Family Friendly product, launched at 11 Downing Street in Autumn 2014. Clients completing our Family Friendly accreditation include Travelodge, Stansted Airport and Gatwick Airport.  We expanded our Family Friendly offer and piloted family peer to peer training with The Globe to expand our portfolio of products.
●	Managed the team who led consultancy, training and publishing services aimed at the public sector. Our focus was Early Years and Access to Atypical Childcare. The Department for Education commissioned us to work with London Councils to identify supply and demand issues and provide innovative solutions that will be sustainable and good value for money for a wide audience. 
●	Worked with key corporate clients to implement Family Friendly days these included Gatwick and Stansted airport with Maisy Mouse provided by Walker Books to engage press and optimise on and offline customer journeys and user experiences
●	Managed our development of our National Association of Family Information Services membership and strategy including engaging the steering committee and expanding their product base to ensure sustainability. 
●	My team successfully secured sponsorship of our research products including surveys such as Childcare Costs and Our Holiday.

Director of Business Development, Fundraising and Marketing

Remember A Charity

Remember A Charity is the UK's biggest cross-charity consortium, campaigning to encourage more people to leave charitable gifts in wills. The legacy market is currently worth almost £2 billion a year, more than 25 Comic Relief appeals. A 4% change in behaviour would raise a further £1bn a year for good causes every year.

●	Supported development and implementation of a strategy to identify and influence a positive climate for charitable giving in wills across the Will writing, legal, financial and investment sectors, corporate institutions and professional bodies  
●	Delivery of Live Forever National Campaign working with our Director and Atomic. It generated more than 40 million opportunities to see, with nationwide bus shelter and digital sites, national media coverage and a microsite. Brokered a donation of advertising space through an on going strategic partnership with Clear Channel.  
●	We won the Third Sector Business Charity Award for our ‘outstanding’ partnership with Cooperative Legal Services (CLS). The award recognised the ground-breaking research carried out with CLS and the Cabinet Office, which has the potential to revolutionise legacy giving worldwide. The legacy market generates more than £2 billion a year. 
●	Engaged members to approach their partners to grow the will market for all, including NSPCC,  Direct Line, Prostate Cancer UK and Keyline  
●	Worked with the Director and the Institute of Fundraising to influence The Government and have supported work with the Cabinet Office and insight behavioural team ‘nudge unit’

Partnerships Manager

RNIB

•Product Development of Read for RNIB Day to ensure all objectives were met for year two of a seven year plan and external relationships are developed for year three and four.
•Cross team working with Community, Corporate and Digital to produce marketing materials, and implement the tools needed to monitor and evaluate plans. I also line managed the growing Read for RNIB Day team. 
•Created and implemented strategies for supporter acquisition, supporter engagement and retention by working with external companies including a free book giveaway with the Daily Express, Lidl and Walker Books in August, with a TV advert on channel five. 
•Lead creation of bid presentations and presented with Corporate Partnerships, PR and Community Fundraising including Walker Books, Lidl, Morison's, Toby Carvery, Barclays Bank all of these engaged with Read for RNIB Day for 2012/2013 or longer. 
•Produced marketing materials using Alice in Wonderland illustrations provided pro bono by Walker Books for schools, individuals, SME's and activity groups. 
•Secured Pro Bono marketing channels including Clear Channel Posters sites nationwide which was worth over £8 million to RNIB.
•Launched micro site and delivered the production of two videos to complement the free book give away and the schools pack for schools. 
•Targeted Literary Festivals and engaged with Cheltenham Literary Festival, Chipping Norton, Birmingham Literature Festival and Ikely. As well as engaging Holland Park Opera and Robert James at Chelsea Flower Show for 2013.
•Developed concepts with two agencies to deliver two events including a sensory Alice in Wonderland Pop up on the banks of the Thames, and an 'Experience Event'. We were organically promoted by the Telegraph as a must see event. 
•Managed the 'central' income and expenditure working across three trigger budgets, 
 •Achieved a high level of staff engagement for Read for RNIB Day through maximising internal routes e.g. social media photo competition for staff

Read for RNIB Campaign Manager

•Project managing new and re branding existing products and creating new concepts after identifying gaps in the product portfolio in order to expand the supporter base and complement the 2009 – 2014 RNIB strategy. 
•Strategically working with marketing to ensure that we are maximising brand recognition e.g. identified the need for a signature event and launched the first ever Read for RNIB Day, taking place Friday 14th October 2011, introduced initial concepts and seven year plan which we pitched to decision makers including Group Director, Fundraising.  
•Lead in the creation of bid presentations ensuring they were strategically aligned with the corporate clients we were approaching and presented with PR to external companies such as Waterstones and Walker books, all pitches were won. 
•Implemented marketing activity included a free book give away of ‘Moles Sunrise’ with the Daily Mail, Walker books and Waterstones with Waterstones donating 20p for every coupon redeemed in store.
Project Managed and brainstormed concept for PR launch a Guinness World Record attempt with Waterstones and worked with PR to identify Anthony Horowitz to write bespoke prose which secured pre event Guardian coverage.
• Worked with digital fundraising to deliver online activities includes social media campaigns managing the Facebook page and conducting choice testing with Facebook ads to identify the best routes to market as well as e-mail communication, website copy and trialling text to donate as a method of giving. 
•Responsible for briefing and day to day contact with ITN Productions and design agencies to ensure all objectives and timelines were met. 
•Facilitated Innovation sessions for companies including Qualcomm and internally with departments including Strategy and Planning and Marketing.

Innovation Planner

NSPCC

•Project managing new and re branding existing products and concepts in order to expand the supporter base and complement the 2009 – 2016 NSPCC strategy. Conducted SWOT analysis’s, focus groups and business plans in order to increase participation and ROI e.g. Pedal Push over 100,000 children registered to take part in 2010 a 70% increase on 2009.
•Managing products in 10 different regions across the UK and cross selling products with all departments including National Events,  Major Giving and Volunteer Development.
•Online Activities includes social media campaigns, tracked online banner and button ads, direct e- mailing campaigns, analyse CTR  on e-mails and banners, work closely with e-fundraising and digital communication on SEO and Google analytics and Facebook ads. 
•Offline activities include writing copy, creating design briefs, leading on creating unique creative ways to market products and recording and manipulating data.
•Responsible for copy writing and image selection on various products for the NSPCC website, print materials and booking press advertising including distress space.
•Leading on pitching to companies for sponsorship of products, gifts in kind including Outbreak, and Nickelodeon both of which were secured.
•Research competitors and trends, hold focus groups to gather feedback on how to grow current products
•Prepare monthly figures for management meetings, analyse results and feed into reforecast budgets on products

Product Development

The Variety Club Children's charity

▪Created new concepts and ideas for unique fundraising initiatives in order to diversify and expand the funding base and increase data capture e.g. relaunch of Gold Heart Day in 2009 projected to raise over One Million and secured the first ever celebrity face of the campaign, Colleen Rooney as well as Co Operative as the official sponsor including them featuring Variety Club branding on over 24 million carrier bags as well as at ATM points. 
▪Lead and assisted in the creation of bid presentations and presented to external companies such as Arcardia, Co operative, Clear Channel, W H Smiths and Lipsy where all contracts were won. 
▪Promoted digital marketing through direct emailing  advertising banners, buttons, web based competitions for data capture and working closely with Chorion on Mr. Men and Little Miss Podcasts, valentines e-cards and mobile communication.
▪ Preparation, including background research and analysis of design briefs for design and production agencies together with sourcing quotations for this work. Responsible for day to day contact with design and PR agencies. 
▪Responsible for copywriting and image selection on marketing activities including websites.
Carried out extensive marketing research through data collection enabling the charity to gain a greater knowledge of its funding base. Coordinated data purchase, storage, cleansing and mailing list management. I sat on the project team to implement our new CRM database 'Progress'.

Special Projects

Co Founder of seasonal and foraging brand Bangers and Balls and Co Author of the best selling books Foraging Fairytales. Who has been seen on Channel Four heard on BBC Radio and quoted as an expert in The Daily Mail, The Sun, Guardian and for organisations such as Aviva.  

Talk to me about potential partnerships and as a paid speaker for events to talk about brand development, strategy and foraging. 

A Strategic Partnership and Branding expert who has worked with brands including Co-operative Group, Clear Channel Acardia, Lidl, Morrisons, NSPCC, RNIB, Walker Books, Mr. Men and Little Miss and Live Better With. 

My favourite ever colloboration was a "Must See Event" featured in the Telegraph. We created a multi-sensory story experience of Alice in Wonderland held on the banks of the Thames. It featured five creative areas to offer multi-sensory story experiences including the Mad Hatter’s Story Corner and The Forest of Talking Mushrooms with narrative provided by Michael Sheen OBE. 

My proudest ever partnership moment was thanks to the amazing Co-operative Group and Variety Club where we secured branding on over 24 million carrier bags as well as at ATM points. It made me realise the power of partnerships in my first year of work. 

The biggest Game Changer partnership I was part of was with The Cabinet Office Insight Behavioural Team "Nudge Unit", Co-operative Legal Services and Remember A Charity. The ground-breaking research carried out with CLS and the Cabinet Office,  has the potential to revolutionise legacy giving worldwide. The legacy market generates more than £2 billion a year. We also won the Third Sector Business Charity Award for our ‘outstanding’ partnership with Cooperative Legal Services (CLS). 

A bit more about me 

I have created content led giveaways including “Moles Sunrise” and "We're Going on a Bear Hunt with The Sunday Express, Daily Mail, Morrisons, Channel Five, Walker Books. RNIB and Lidl with brilliant results for all while adding value to the user. 

 Product development for campaigns and merchandise including Gold Hearts for Variety Club Childrens Charity and bespoke Lipsy outfits to gain media coverage including on the BBC. 

Working on  launch events hosted at venues including Downing Street, Harrods with Girls Aloud and the Mr. Men, The Houses of Parliament and the Dorchester to ensure maximum exposure for new products. Spoke on speaker stages.

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Nicole Mezzasalma

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The Battle

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