Meet the Hot 30: Duncan, Social Media Lead at UKTV

Meet Duncan, Social Media Lead at UKTV and one of our Pepper Hot 30 UK 2026 winners.

Leading social across UKTV’s scripted drama and comedy channels, including U&Drama, U&Alibi and U&GOLD, Duncan’s role spans everything from digging into an extensive archive to find the right content for the right audience, to spearheading major campaigns and building the U brand.

We caught up with Duncan to talk about experimenting with new formats, why social teams shouldn’t be precious about ideas, the shift towards more authentic brand content, whether post copy could become obsolete and why practical creative skills are so important for anyone building a career in social.

What’s your role at UKTV and what does your day to day look like?

I lead on scripted social media at UKTV, overseeing our scripted drama and comedy channels including U&Drama, U&Alibi and U&GOLD. My role splits into two main areas: managing business-as-usual content and spearheading major campaigns.

On a day-to-day level, there’s a lot of video editing, digging into our extensive archive and understanding our catalogue to match the right content with the right audience - for example, bringing classic comedy to Facebook or crime procedurals to Alibi.

On the campaign side, we focus heavily on innovation and brand building for our streaming service, U.

My background started from tweeting, running a blog with author Caroline O’Donoghue, managing social for Big Brother and working agency-side before locking in at UKTV eight years ago.

What’s been your biggest win or proudest moment in your current role so far?

Spearheading the campaign for Bookish - a major upcoming series written, starring and executive produced by Mark Gatiss (Sherlock). The sheer scale of access and creative innovation on this campaign has been a highlight.

We leaned into new formats, including running a full Reddit AMA with custom video replies, executing event coverage, and I even wrote and edited our first-ever YouTube video essay for scripted drama, which Mark personally recorded for us.

Managing this scale while adapting on the fly when team members were out sick made delivering the campaign immensely rewarding.

Which social platforms are you seeing the most success with right now, and what do you think is driving that?

Facebook remains a strong, expressive driver for our scripted content. The audience there gives immediate, qualitative feedback in the comments, allowing us to engage directly on their level about fan favourites like Dame Judi Dench or classic crime shows.

Instagram excels at reaching a more modern, dedicated fan base, while launching the U TikTok account has provided a fascinating learning curve in navigating dynamic, fast-changing algorithms.

What’s one piece of work you’ve been involved in recently that you’re particularly proud of?

The campaign launch for The Marlowe Murder Club. We executed a "run-and-gun" setup with custom social games, line quizzes and bespoke graphics modelled after playing cards.

Building that piece of content from the ground up - from initial concept to final polished asset - and seeing how seamlessly all the moving parts came together made it a stand-out project.

What’s something you’ve learnt in your current role that has changed the way you approach social?

Don’t be precious about your ideas, and don’t be afraid to kill formats that no longer serve you.

When traditional Instagram image posts stopped performing, we pivoted immediately rather than wasting energy on outdated tactics.

Social media offers low stakes for experimentation. If a concept doesn’t work, learn from the data and move on. The best campaigns come from open brainstorms where it doesn’t matter who generated the idea, as long as it delivers for the audience.

What’s exciting you most about social media at the moment?

We are at a fascinating reckoning point regarding true authenticity. Audiences are increasingly rejecting overly polished corporate messaging in favour of real people and genuine creators.

Navigating how brands can meaningfully participate on platforms like TikTok without feeling purely transactional is a challenging, volatile and exciting frontier.

It forces social teams to constantly reinvent their approach rather than relying on a fixed playbook.

What’s your biggest prediction for social media in 2027?

Brands will move towards an even less "brand-like" presence.

Beyond standard employee-generated content, corporate social channels will feel more like individual creators representing internal culture rather than traditional marketing outlets.

Subtle, organic storytelling will completely replace overt advertising.

What do you think brands and social teams will be talking about this time next year?

Whether post copy is becoming obsolete in favour of a purely visual experience.

As user behaviour shifts on platforms like TikTok and Instagram, social teams will be re-evaluating the role of copy - debating whether its primary purpose has pivoted entirely to back-end SEO rather than upfront audience engagement.

What’s one piece of advice you’d give to someone looking to build a career in social?

Gain a practical, basic working knowledge of as many creation tools as possible - whether that’s Premiere, Photoshop, Canva or CapCut.

Building versatile execution skills allows you to turn ideas into finished content quickly.

Most importantly, keep a creative outlet and make things for yourself to keep your skills sharp and your passion active.

We know great social is always a team effort. Are there any members of your team you’d like to give a shout-out to by name in your Hot 30 article, and what would you like to recognise them for?

Erina & Georgia: Our leadership team, who give us the permission and confidence to experiment, innovate and pivot when needed.

Pete, Yuson & Trey: Our brilliant social media managers, who bring incredible rigour and fresh ideas to every project.

Lara: Our analytics lead, providing invaluable data depth.

Harold, Ben, Kirsty & Jamie: Our video team, who drive our YouTube growth and support our overarching video pipeline.

And our Marketing, Creative, Devs & Comms teams for the ongoing collaboration - including our developer hackathon, which resulted in a custom dog-themed pause button for our streaming app!

Why Duncan Made the Hot 30

Duncan’s approach to social combines creative experimentation with a willingness to recognise when something simply isn’t working anymore. Rather than being tied to formats or ideas because they’ve worked before, he’s focused on understanding audiences, learning from the data and continually adapting the work.

We were particularly interested in his perspective on the shift towards less "brand-like" social - from the growing importance of real people and creators to his prediction that corporate channels could increasingly behave like individual personalities representing the culture inside a business. His willingness to experiment with everything from Reddit AMAs and YouTube video essays to new TikTok approaches is exactly the kind of forward-thinking social work the Hot 30 was created to celebrate.

You can read more about the Pepper Hot 30 UK 2026, meet the full list of winners and find out more about the initiative here.