Before I dive into what this newsletter is all about, let me quickly introduce myself! I’m Izzy, and I joined Joli in June as Marketing Manager. As the first in-house marketer, I was tasked with looking at what gaps we could fill to best support the teams and marketers whose core objective is getting their hospitality brands found and discovered through social media.
It didn’t take long to realise we’re sitting on a mountain of data, creator insights and insider knowledge from working with 300+ brands in the space. And if there’s one thing marketers love almost as much as a framework, zero amends or a viral video, it’s good data they can actually feed back into their strategy.
So, let me help you out.
Welcome to the very first issue of The Joli Monthly! Every month I’ll bring you:
- Our top 3 picks of creator content made through Joli, with a breakdown of exactly why each performed well and what style of content is working, so you can take inspiration for your next paid ad or UGC brief.
- An industry deep dive, partner spotlight or fresh perspective on what’s happening in the industry.
- Joli product updates, and answers to the questions you keep asking.
- Anything new worth knowing from our favourite tools and platforms.
So grab a drink, and let’s get into it.
Top creator content from July
Every month I’ll dig through the content our creators have made through the Joli app, pull out the three that performed best, then break down exactly what made them work, so you can take inspiration for your own briefs and creator partnership strategy.
@gizzysblog The Royal Horseguards Hotel
by @gizzysblog · 37.3K followersGizzy teamed up with The Royal Horseguards Hotel for an overnight gifted collab, and this Reel performed so well because it’s a perfect audience match. Her followers are already there for London luxury stays, and the content leant into moody b-roll of the interiors, outdoor seating and food and drink rather than a voiceover review. Viewers could picture their own stay quickly, and the aesthetics draw you in. Her caption was long and keyword-rich, which almost certainly helped it surface in search and Explore.
@yunaandashofficial Bella Italia
by @yunaandashofficial · 28.2K followersLeeds-based creators Yuna and Ash have built their TikTok audience around life as a Japanese and British couple navigating new parenthood, budgeting tips and saving for their first home. For this gifted collab, they took their followers along on their first family meal out since having their baby, built around Bella Italia’s £5 pasta offer.
The collab worked because the creators made a gifted restaurant visit feel like a natural extension of their usual content. I see a lot of UGC briefs that say things like “you must mention the brand in the first 5 seconds.” This content flips that script: Bella Italia comes in once the story has been set up, so the meal feels like part of their day rather than the point of the video.
@ryan_ewhare Flat Iron Square
by @ryan_ewhare · 7.4K followersRyan made a reactive video for Flat Iron Square, promoting it as a hot spot to watch the World Cup just as people started searching TikTok for “places to watch the world cup london”. He opened with the hook “If you need somewhere to watch the World Cup this summer, I got you man,” cutting through clips of the outdoor space, the screens showing the football, and the food and drinks, then rolled into his usual review.
Connecting a gifted campaign to a live cultural moment gave viewers a reason to watch beyond the venue itself, and the high shares relative to likes suggest people were sending it on to mates as a “let’s watch the game here”. The laid-back, lo-fi filming is also very TikTok-native.
Are you sleeping on this free TikTok tool?
TikTok’s Creator Search Insights is something most of us know is there, but don’t use enough. Instead, we scroll for half an hour until we find something inspiring, when TikTok is literally giving away the answers to what you should be doing for your content and briefs when working with creators.
Right now, food searches are climbing fast:
- “London food recommendations”: up 1,000% (290K searches)
- “Where to eat with friends”: up 157.4% (1.8K searches)
- “Cafe near me”: up 128.3% (416K searches)
For each trend, TikTok also generates an AI outline, including:
- Related videos for inspiration
- Relevant hashtags
- A full script structure: intro and hook, setup, visit, tips, rating, outro
Why does it matter for your creator campaigns and organic socials? If you’re building your organic socials or working with creators who post to TikTok, this gives you a useful structure to point towards, rather than a vague “show off the venue” brief.
One thing to flag on gifted content: you can’t hand over a full script. It needs to stay in the creator’s own voice and style, but “what we’d like to see” talking points are fair game.
It’s worth a proper look if you haven’t used it yet, particularly if TikTok search visibility is something you’re trying to crack this year.
Turn creator content into paid and organic assets
Once you’ve got a brief sorted (using the tips above, ideally), it’s worth thinking about where that content can go. Ad Studio credits give you owned, fully licensed content to use across paid ads or organic social. It’s the perfect outsourcing solution for busy marketing teams who need high-quality content without adding more to their own plate.
How it works:
- You upload a brief, as rigid or as creative as you like.
- We match you with a creator who fits your brand and brief.
- Once you approve them, they create the content and upload it straight into the Joli platform (no Dropbox links or WeTransfer emails required).
- You can go back and forth until the final concept is ready.
- We pay the creator directly too, so there’s no invoicing on your end.
If you’re on the Business plan, you’ve already got a couple of these sitting there each month, so go make the most of them!
Ask Joli: what’s actually a good engagement rate?
This is one of our most-asked questions in demos and check-in calls with customers, so let’s settle it once and for all.
Anything around 5% is solid.
And while we’re on the topic of metrics, don’t take a high follower count at face value. Some accounts have inflated audiences from regions with no real overlap with your venue, so a big following with low engagement is a bigger red flag than a smaller, more active one. Comments, shares and saves are worth more than a pile of likes.
It’s also worth knowing that “good” looks different depending on the size of the creator:
- Nano creators (1K–10K followers) tend to have the strongest engagement rates of any tier (4–8%): smaller, tighter-knit audiences who actually interact.
- Micro creators (10K–100K followers) still comfortably outperform bigger accounts (2–5%), just with a bit more scale behind them.
- Macro creators (100K–1M followers) trade some of that engagement for reach (1–3%): more followers, but a smaller share of them actually interacting.
This pattern of smaller creators outperforming bigger ones holds across Instagram and TikTok too (ContentGrip, 2026; eMarketer, citing HypeAuditor’s 2026 State of Influencer Marketing report).
For reference, creators on Joli need an engagement rate above 5% (or above 3.5% if they’ve got 10K+ followers) just to be accepted onto the platform.
Quick hits
- 🏖️ School holidays have started. If you haven’t already, now’s the time to get summer holiday campaigns live: think Kids Eat Free, family breakfast deals, lunch bundles and children’s entertainment.
- 🍻 International Beer Day is on 7 August.
- 🔍 Google has added “platform properties” to Search Console, so you can connect Instagram, TikTok, X or YouTube and see which searches are driving impressions and clicks to your posts. A big deal for social SEO. Google says the rollout is gradual over the coming weeks, so keep an eye on your Search Console.
That’s it for issue one! I hope you enjoyed the read.
Follow us on LinkedIn for more social media news, hot takes and Joli product updates.
Speak soon, Izzy & the Joli team 💛
