Meet the Pepper Hot 30 UK 2026

Just 15 years ago, many of the roles we now consider fundamental to modern marketing either didn't exist or looked completely different.

Head of Social. Creator Marketing Lead. Influencer Marketing Manager. Social Strategist. Community Manager. Creator Partnerships.

Today, these people sit behind some of the biggest decisions brands make. They're building communities, shaping culture, influencing purchasing decisions and increasingly driving measurable business growth.

And yet, when our industry celebrates great work, recognition often goes to the campaign, the brand or the agency rather than the individuals making it happen.

We wanted to change that.

Today, we're incredibly excited to reveal the inaugural Pepper Hot 30 UK - recognising 30 of the people shaping social media in the UK right now.

Introducing the Pepper Hot 30

Earlier this year, we opened nominations for our first-ever Pepper Hot 30, looking for the people doing genuinely exciting things across social.

And you delivered.

We received hundreds of nominations spanning brands, platforms, publishers and entertainment businesses, and covering almost every corner of the industry - from organic and paid social to creator marketing, influencer, community, content and strategy.

We wanted to recognise people based on the strength of their work, their impact on the industry and the contribution they're making to where social goes next.

After the incredibly difficult job of narrowing those nominations down, we brought our shortlist together to celebrate the people behind the work.

Now, it's time to reveal the final 30...

The Pepper Hot 30 UK 2026

• Alex Hick - Creator Program Lead, LADbible
• Chloe Farkas - Social Campaigns Lead, Pinterest
• Dani Pisciottano - Head of Marketing, LEAP Enterprise
• Duncan Vicat-Brown - Social Media Manager, UKTV
• Elliott Smith - Head of Social, PR & Activations, MyProtein (THG)
• Emily Grisewood - Social Media and Influencer Coordinator, White Stuff
• Emma Martell - Head of Social Content, Avanti West Coast
• Evie Braithwaite - Performance Marketing Manager, Financial Times
• Greg Baxter - Senior Product & Marketing Manager, Octopus Energy
• Hayley Shortman - Senior Influencer Marketing Manager, TUI UK
• Holly Gazzard - Social & Influencer Manager, Sky
• James Allinson - Communication & Marketing Specialist, Ferrari
• Jennifer Howlett - Social Media Manager, Merlin Entertainments
• Kate Whitaker - Music Marketing Manager, Live Nation
• Lee Scarratt - Senior Social Media Manager, VMO2
• Mathieu Couret - VIP, Partnerships and Influencer Lead, Vinted
• Megan Rowlands - Senior Creative Strategist, Tripadvisor
• Milly Tuck - Head of Brand Marketing, Little Moons
• Palmer Sperau - Global Creator Marketing Coordinator, Logitech
• Rachelle (Thompson) Denton - Global Head of Social Media, Jellycat
• Rebecca Youngs - Social Media Manager, Hotel Chocolat
• Robert Leather - Creator Marketing Lead, TikTok
• Saleha Rahmani - Marketing Manager, The O2
• Sam Sage - Social Media Manager, Ascot Racecourse
• Tuanni Marshall - Social Media Manager, Transport for London
• Vitor Correia - Creator Digital Marketing Lead
• Wardah Sempa - Senior Creative Content and Influencer Marketing Manager, Columbia Records
• Yasmin Baker-Marshall - Social Media Consultant, All3Media International
• Yusuf Aleem - Senior Social Media & Influencer Marketing Consultant, Experian
• Zoe Hunter- Social Media Manager, Travelport

A huge congratulations to every single person who made this year's list, and to all of the nominees and shortlisters.

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An industry that barely existed 15 years ago

Part of the reason we wanted to launch the Hot 30 now is because it's easy to forget quite how young this industry is.

Facebook only really started developing into the marketing and advertising channel we recognise today in the late 2000s.

YouTube launched its Partner Programme in 2007, giving creators a way to make money directly from their content.

Instagram didn't launch until 2010.

Pinterest began developing into a paid marketing channel in the early 2010s.

TikTok didn't arrive until 2016.

Even paid influencer marketing, as we understand it today, has only really existed for a little over a decade.

And look at where we are now.

Social has become one of the most important channels for building modern brands. It can take an independent business from relative obscurity to a sellout overnight, turn creators into global businesses and create communities around brands that extend far beyond a traditional customer relationship.

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The real impact of social isn't always trackable

Someone discovers a brand on TikTok. They follow it on Instagram.

A few weeks later, they see a creator talking about it. They send the post to a friend.

Six weeks later, they Google the brand and buy something. Or walk into a shop and pick it up.

Which social post gets the credit?

Probably none of them.

That's part of what makes social so difficult, and so powerful.

Its influence doesn't always fit neatly into an attribution model. Social creates familiarity, conversations, communities and cultural relevance long before somebody reaches the checkout.

Behind all of that are people.

They're deciding which communities a brand should participate in. They're spotting a cultural moment before it becomes a trend. They're finding the right creators. They're answering customers. They're making content people actually want to watch. They're convincing internal stakeholders to try something new.

That's the work the Hot 30 exists to recognise.

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And social is changing again

If the last 15 years have taught us anything, it's that the jobs, platforms and strategies defining social today probably won't look the same 15 years from now.

At our Hot 30 shortlist event, our CSO Danny shared three of Pepper's predictions for where things are heading next.

1. Social commerce gets bigger - and more premium

Buying through social already feels increasingly normal. The next question is what we're prepared to buy there.

As consumer trust grows, we expect more premium brands and higher-value purchases to enter the social commerce ecosystem.

TikTok Shop is already a normal part of the ecommerce mix for many brands. The next phase could see social move further beyond impulse purchases and towards much more considered buying decisions.

2. Everyone becomes an influencer

When we hear "influencer", we still tend to picture somebody with hundreds of thousands - or millions - of followers.

But influence increasingly happens on a much smaller scale.

It's your friend recommending the restaurant she visited last weekend. Someone reviewing their new moisturiser. Or the person with 2,000 followers who everyone in a particular running community listens to.

For brands, that could mean moving from relationships with tens of large creators towards networks of hundreds or even thousands of smaller, highly relevant voices.

Instead of finding the biggest beauty creator in Britain, you might want to find the people genuinely influencing beauty purchases in Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds and Bristol.

AI will make finding, understanding and managing those communities at scale increasingly possible. But the influence itself will remain fundamentally human.

3. Social gets more physical

For years, we've talked about more of our lives moving online.

The next chapter could see the distinction between our online and offline lives become much less obvious.

Wearable technology such as smart glasses means we can increasingly capture an experience without consciously getting a phone out to film it. Suddenly, we're not experiencing something and posting about it afterwards - the experience itself becomes social.

At the same time, people are seeking out smaller communities through spaces such as Substack, Patreon and private broadcast groups.

The future of social might therefore look less like one enormous public feed and more like thousands of smaller communities - some digital, some physical and many sitting somewhere between the two.

The people writing social's next chapter

That's what makes celebrating the people working in social right now particularly important.

They're working in an industry without decades of established rules.

They're navigating new platforms, technologies and behaviours as they emerge. They're figuring out what good creator marketing looks like. They're building communities brands didn't previously have. They're working out where AI helps and where humans matter more. And they're constantly proving why social deserves a seat at the table.

We're not joining an industry with a playbook that's been written for decades. We're the people writing it.

The inaugural Pepper Hot 30 celebrates 30 of those people.

But publishing the list isn't the end of it.

Over the coming months, we'll be sitting down with members of the Hot 30 to hear much more from them - from the careers and experiences that got them here to the work they're proudest of, what they think our industry needs to do better and where they believe social is heading next.

Because there are plenty of lists celebrating the work.

We want to celebrate the people behind it.

Congratulations to the Pepper Hot 30 UK 2026!