Oli Hills is the CEO of Nonsensical a TikTok marketing agency that has delivered over 600 million video views on the platform in the past 12 months.
Oli is also a governor on the board of Ronald McDonald House Charities supporting them with their overall social media strategy.
- Tell us a little bit about your business…
Nonsensical is a TikTok marketing agency that helps brands win on TikTok, delivering 600 million video views in the past 12 months. Nonsensical offer a variety of services including content creation, TikTok account management, paid advertising, strategy and training. The team is made up of 17 TikTok experts as well as 40 regular, part-time TikTok creators. The team at Nonsensical have also created their own TikTok communities in the past 15 months, growing Endless Mythology to 335,000 followers and Endless Pride to 307,000 followers.
2. How did you get into the industry?
I was actually approached to take over as CEO of a social media community called Birmingham Updates in January 2017. I had left a career in finance to explore my own start-up and this opportunity was too good to miss. I managed to grow the business up to 8 people before losing 95% of our revenue due to the lockdown. It was then that we saw the opportunity to pivot the business and focus on TikTok as a core channel – we’ve not looked back since!
3. What are the biggest opportunities and challenges in your industry?
Ultimately we’re at the beck and call of social media platforms in terms of features and strategic changes so we’re relentlessly on the back foot which requires constant innovation and testing in order to deliver for clients. With TikTok being a new and exciting social media platform with relatively little take up from a company perspective there is a huge opportunity for us as a specialist in this area to support brands wanting to grow on TikTok. In terms of challenges, there is obviously uncertainty in the economy and costs increasing as marketing is often the first cost line to be removed by businesses looking to save money. We offer a performance-based pricing model which gives businesses confidence in our will to achieve results, particularly as we share the risk in this uncertain period.
4. How would you describe your leadership style?
I like to think I’m very open and honest with the team, giving freedom to innovate in order to achieve our collective vision. I know that I don’t have all the best ideas or all the answers so leaving the team with the freedom to innovate and come up with new ideas is incredibly powerful for moving the business forward. I like to think I am extremely fair as well, giving members of the team a lot of flexibility to work in their own way to achieve their goals. Being honest is one of our values at Nonsensical and I make sure I live that every day. There are phenomenal opportunities at the business for those who want to take them and I’ll support every member of the team who is looking to develop and improve on a daily basis.
5. How do you get the most out of the people who work for you?
I truly believe that giving people really clear goals is fundamental to success. Everybody works differently and performs at their best under different circumstances so once people have clear goals and deliverables I am comfortable giving people the freedom to do what they need to deliver them. Being available to give support as and when required is then crucial to guide the team and remove any blockages stopping them from achieving their goals.
6. What are the most crucial elements to your business running smoothly and being successful?
As we’re a service business, our people are everything when it comes to achieving our business goals and delivering our clients’ goals. Therefore, making sure that the team are adequately trained and supported in all areas of their roles is crucial for success. While our team are incredibly creative, we do need to build a system that supports creativity. This is a hard balance because creativity and process don’t always go hand in hand so finding the balance is imperative for success.
7. How has the past 12 months been for you?
Amongst the uncertainty, the past 12 months have been a brilliant learning journey. Having only recently pivoted our business to focus on TikTok we’ve been restructuring the team and processes to optimise our delivery for clients. We’ve rapidly been onboarding new clients and new team members so it’s been a constant period of growth and change – this is obviously super exciting but has meant it’s been a crazy time without many periods of consistency. I’m looking forward to a break at Christmas to recharge the batteries before another exciting 12 months.
8. What will the next 12 months look like for your business?
Our vision is to be the world’s most sought-after TikTok agency so quite simply continuing to build towards that. It will be a more challenging year with the uncertainty in the economy so making sure we’re delivering real value to our clients is going to be fundamental to ensuring we have a great base to continue to grow. The other exciting factor is that TikTok will continue to become the go-to platform for businesses and therefore we envisage a busy year of talking at events and speaking to brands about how they can leverage TikTok for their business. Finally, it’s all about continuing to develop our team, onboard new colleagues and add further processes so we’re successfully set up to scale the operation.
9. What are the highlights of your career so far?
We were recently asked to work with TikTok at the first major event in the UK whereby we were selected as the agency of choice to talk on stage in front of 100’s of other agencies about how we’re set up and optimised to deliver TikTok success for our clients. Having taken the decision to change our team and pivot our business to focus on TikTok, this was a real moment of validation for the decision we took. Another highlight was being chosen by NatWest and ITV to star in their most recent TV advert where we had the opportunity to showcase our own TikTok community Endless Pride.
10. What’s the biggest business mistake that you’ve learnt from?
I’m sure I make mistakes every day but the key thing is learning from them. I think the biggest mistake I’ve made is not making decisions quickly enough and committing to them.
It is hard as CEO, especially when you’re making hundreds of decisions every day, to know when you’re doing the right thing. I think decisions when they involve members of the team are often the hardest to take but I’ve definitely learned that I need to make decisions more quickly and commit to the consequences regardless of what they may be.
11. What’s the best piece of business advice you’ve been given?
I’m extremely fortunate to have a number of incredible mentors that support me on a regular basis. Each one brings different expertise and so much experience to support me and the team on our journey. I think the best piece of advice I’ve been given is to always focus and talk about performance. Data is the biggest leveller and helps to take emotion out of decision-making. While sometimes it’s good to go with your gut, it’s always best to back up decisions with actual data and metrics. This helps to provide clarity to everyone within the business and enables us to jointly achieve our goals. The other thing I live by is that it’s better to light a few candles than complain about the dark – regardless of what is happening, moaning will never solve anything, so I try to remain positive and push on regardless.
