Fractional Marketing Director. Brand strategist. Writer on the zeitgeist.
I work at the intersection of media, culture, marketing and brand strategy, advising businesses on positioning, narrative and long-term relevance, and supporting them with 360° marketing strategy across brand, content, partnerships and activation.
I graduated in marketing in 2012 and went straight into social media, back when it was still, mostly, social. In 2019 I started my own agency, Social Mode, working with brands across London and Dubai. For six years I watched the feed from the inside, close enough to see it change. Somewhere along the way it stopped being social. It became media: paid for, programmed, performed, and still being sold under its old name.
I left agency life before everyone else noticed.
If social was media now, I wanted to be inside a media company. In February 2025 I joined ITP Media Group as Head of Social across 15 luxury titles, and from there moved into marketing as a whole, the discipline I'd trained in. Today I work as a fractional marketing director, leading strategy for luxury and wellness brands across the Middle East, covering positioning, narrative, campaigns and partnerships.
If social has become media, the obvious move is to own some. So Social Mode is now my publication on the zeitgeist of social, tech and consumer culture. It's also my bet on people. Through it I work one-to-one with individuals on their personal brand and content strategy, because the most interesting media companies right now are single people with a point of view.
Based in Dubai. Working everywhere.
Fractional Services
Brand, Social & Campaign Strategy
End-to-end strategy across brand positioning, social presence, and campaign direction
Creative Campaign Direction
Concept development and creative direction for product and campaign launches
Strategy Workshops & Advisory Sessions
Sessions for founders, leadership teams, and in-house teams
Integrated Campaign & Launch Strategy
Multi-channel campaign planning and activations for launches and key moment
Media & PR Strategy (MENA)
Media positioning, editorial alignment, and strategic coverage planning
Fractional Brand Leadership
Interim leadership across brand, social, and influence during periods of growth or change
Influencer & Partnership Strategy
Strategic approach to influencer relationships and brand partnerships
Brand Audits, Audience Insight & Analysis
Evaluation of brand position, audience, and competitive landscape
Team & Creative Output Oversight
Guidance across content, digital, social, and marketing functions
Résumé
Head of Social & Community
ITP Media Group – Luxury Division
Dubai | 2025 – Jan 2026
Led social strategy across 14 luxury titles and more than 30 channels, including Harper’s Bazaar Arabia, Esquire Middle East, Arabian Business and Grazia.
Repositioned social as a commercial growth engine across the division through a social-first planning and publishing model, aligning editorial, audience and revenue objectives.
Year-on-Year Impact (2025 vs 2024)
• +283% total views (632M)
• +788% content interactions (11.4M)
• +677% engaged accounts (8.4M)
• +159% audience growth (150K)
• +393% organic reach (385M views)
• Engagement rate increased to 1.8%, outperforming luxury benchmarks
Delivered record-breaking campaigns including Cartier Love Stories with Harper’s Bazaar (85M+ reach, 10K+ new followers) and Dubai 100 for Arabian Business (27% conversion), both highest-performing campaigns in title history.
Built and managed strategic relationships with global platform partners including TikTok, Meta and Google/YouTube, securing amplification, beta access and innovation opportunities across the portfolio.
Partnered closely with commercial and sales teams to develop data-led proposals, embedding audience insights and platform strategy into branded content pitches to increase CPMs and unlock cross-platform partnerships.
Drove cross-channel audience acquisition and engagement in collaboration with editorial and social leads, increasing traffic, loyalty and subscriber conversion across priority titles.
Worked alongside the Chief Digital Officer to design and deliver audience-led commercial solutions, championing first-party data strategy and creative monetisation frameworks across ITP’s luxury brands.
Introduced new commercial social packages and platform partnerships, creating additional revenue streams and expanding monetisation beyond traditional editorial formats.
Developed and led cross-functional training programmes to embed social-first thinking across editorial and commercial departments, establishing new workflows, governance and reporting structures.
Founder & Managing Director
Social Mode
London & Dubai | 2019 – 2024
Founded and scaled a self-funded social-first consultancy across the UK and MENA, relocating the business from London to Dubai to capitalise on regional growth.
Built a profitable, high-margin consultancy serving 60+ clients across two markets without external investment.
Led a team of six delivering integrated brand systems across content strategy, production, influencer ecosystems and community architecture, with campaigns generating multi-million reach across luxury and lifestyle sectors.
Worked across luxury, tech, automotive and public sector clients, including complex multi-stakeholder UK Government projects.
Director of Social & Influencer (Consultancy Contract)
StickyGinger
Dubai | 2023 – 2024
Led regional social and influencer strategy for MENA-based clients across multiple sectors.
Restructured the social department, implementing new operational systems and workflows to improve delivery efficiency and campaign performance.
Developed integrated influencer and CRM-led campaigns designed to drive measurable engagement and brand growth under compressed timelines.
Strengthened reporting frameworks and elevated creative standards across accounts.
Earlier Career
Held senior social and digital roles across leading London agencies, building the foundation of my expertise in brand storytelling, performance strategy and integrated campaign delivery.
Head of Digital & Social
Kilpatrick | London | 2017 – 2019
Led the transformation of a traditional Beauty PR agency into a digital-first organisation, contributing to 30% revenue growth in year one.
Directed digital strategy across leading wellness and beauty brands, embedding performance-led social practices company-wide.
Brands included: Skyn Iceland, Batiste, Eyelure, Hask, Virtue, Delilah, Revlon
Social Media Manager & Account Manager Roles
London | 2012 – 2017
Managed social strategy, content and performance across major consumer and automotive brands, working within top-tier creative agencies including:
AMV BBDO
Beattie McGuinness Bungay
The&Partnership
Brands included: Lexus UK, Mercedes-Benz UK, British Gas, Hive, Walkers Crisps, Argos, iD Mobile
Led multi-disciplinary teams to deliver social campaigns, combining creative excellence with performance insight.
Get In Touch
Press bio
Jessica Valentine is a Dubai-based Fractional Marketing Director, the founder of Social Mode, and a writer on the zeitgeist of social, tech and consumer culture. A marketing graduate (2012), she ran Social Mode as a social media agency across London and Dubai from 2019 to 2025, leaving on the view that social media had stopped being social and become media. She joined ITP Media Group in February 2025 as Head of Social across 15 luxury titles, before moving into wider marketing leadership. Across 14 years in the UK and UAE she has worked with names including Cartier, Gucci, Harper's Bazaar Arabia, Esquire Middle East and Grazia. Social Mode is now her publication and personal brand strategy practice.