Millie Crabtree, who operates an online brand called Sugaarloaf, beat off competition from a line-up of hopefuls in the Digital Impact Mentorship competition, which was organised by JDR Group and the University of Derby.
JDR Group, which is based in Wyvern Way, launched the competition to mark its 20th anniversary last year, hoping to give a helping hand to an up-and-coming local business.
Following a fiercely fought competition, JDR Group chose Millie ahead of four other candidates with a diverse range of products, services and business experience.Its judges – directors David Roberts, Will Williamson and Leanne Mordue, as well as its head of social media, Kerry Baker – selected Millie because Sugaarloaf looked the most likely to benefit from their expertise, having already established a track record selling artwork, earned a host of loyal customers and grown a social media following.
Selling mainly through the online shop Etsy, Millie specialises in drawing cute and brightly coloured animals, but can also be commissioned to create stylised portraits.
They are also a regular face at markets and conventions across the UK, including Megacon Live and AnimeCon UK. JDR Group will now work with Millie to put together a marketing plan aimed at driving more online sales and promoting original designs.
Will Williamson said: “We were hugely impressed by the innovation and creativity on show during the event, but felt ultimately that Millie and Sugaarloaf was in the most opportune place to benefit from our support.
“Millie is hugely creative and has a strong idea of what they want to achieve with their art – and plenty of sellers who love what they do too. We will help them to combine that passion with a robust sales and marketing strategy that will allow Millie to better promote and sell their artwork.
“We work with small businesses from across all sectors, including e-commerce firms, and we’re really looking forward to helping Millie. It’s very difficult for anyone who launches a start-up to generate and drive sales when they are having to create the products as well, not least study for a degree at the same time, as Millie is doing.”
Millie is in the third year of a BA (Hons) Illustration degree at the University of Derby, having set their heart on becoming a professional artist since they were young.
The artwork is heavily inspired by children’s cartoons, TV series and Japanese-style anime and manga cartoon series, such as Bungo Stray Dogs, the video game Genshin Impact and the TV series Dungeon Meshi.
Millie said: “I was really nervous during the presentation but I’m really happy to have been chosen. I wasn’t expecting it at all.“It’s been my ambition to turn my passion for making my artwork into a business ever since I was young. I was inspired from the first time I visited a Comicon event and I saw hundreds of people selling their artwork. That made me decide that was what I wanted to do too.
“I’ve learned so much from working with JDR Group already. Being able to work with professionals on the sales and marketing side of running a business has been super-interesting and it’s definitely given me more of an idea about how a successful business runs.”
JDR Group, which was founded in 2004, employs 40 staff and offers a full range of digital marketing services including SEO, web design, social media and content marketing.
It has built more than 1,000 websites for its clients in its time and has analysed and audited the marketing operation of more than 250 businesses. It is also one of just a handful of UK firms to have been awarded the prestigious Elite Partner status by world-leading customer relationship management platform HubSpot.
