NICHE FEATURE: HOLLOGRAM
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With its social media focus, digital marketing is often thought of as a young person’s game. A Loughborough-based agency has set up a recruitment process to make use of that idea, providing opportunity and experience to university-leavers WORDS BY TOM YOUNG
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ften recruited fresh from university, the talent at Hollogram typically skews younger. While the company does not exist to be a developmental agency – always maintaining a high professional standard – founder Phil Holloway has created a business that gives his recruits a place to be creative and prove themselves. “I’d been working at DMU as a lecturer and tutor, and had enjoyed passing on my learnings, especially what not to do. I wanted to continue that knowledge transfer, so my plan was to develop Hollogram as a business, while bringing in young talent to help develop them through.” Phil has over two decades of experience in the marketing industry. Having run a retail design agency for 13 years, he eventually moved into the digital marketing field in 2015. Initially working as a lone consultant, he hired his first staff in 2020 to establish Hollogram as a full agency. “I’d worked with a lot of big brands like Chanel, Samsung,
Tesco, Heineken and more, and I wanted to use that expertise to benefit businesses closer to home.” While the digital and social media skills are important, it’s the broader understanding of marketing that Phil is keen to impart. “Marketing is about understanding what customers want and need and what will help businesses to sell their products or services. That might sound obvious, but the key is to create great content that engages the customer. You also need to think about how that content is delivered.” A unique innovation of Hollogram’s is the creation of a content-first channel to serve as a platform for their clients’ marketing. Their main project, Leicester Fan TV, has an online following of over 160,000. “Leicester Fan TV is run as an influencer channel that covers all the sports in Leicester. We use it to help brands and businesses get their name in front of an actively engaged, local audience. We’re really focused on growing
IT MUST BE INSTANTLY APPEALING, AS PEOPLE MAKE TWO-SECOND DECISIONS ABOUT WHETHER TO KEEP SCROLLING. IT NEEDS TO BE PUNCHY, ENGAGING, AND EYECATCHING
that right now.” It’s also important to think about the medium through which your content is viewed, and how that affects production. “We produce a lot of video content with our ‘social media first’ approach in mind. People often make their content based on what they’ve seen on TV or in the cinema, but that won’t be where it’s viewed.” According to Smart Insights’ mobile marketing statistics, 80% of all online marketing is absorbed via your phone, meaning videos are often viewed in portrait mode, so video content needs to be produced with this in mind. “It must be instantly appealing, as people make two-second decisions about whether to keep scrolling. It needs to be punchy, engaging, and eye-catching.” By having their staff adopt this way of thinking, Hollogram’s approach is strengthened by the individual’s creativity. Hollogram is setting itself up for a bright future. Meet the team at hollogram. com and get sports content from leicesterfantv.com. NICHE | 59
