Academy 2026 Cohort
james hopkins
DEGREE
Birmingham City University | BA Digital Marketing
"Creating well thought out, innovative promotional content that effectively resonates with fans."
About james
What was the route that brought you to Academy by Tribera?
When I finished my art and design course at college my path seemed clear at the time, I wanted to go onto an architecture course at university. I looked into how long the course was and was put of when I found out the course was 7 years long. I took a gap year to thinking about my choices and differed for a year. During the gap year I worked full time to earn money and find my side hustle, my clothing brand. I learnt lots of skills such as colour grading and photoshop from playing around with my brands photos. I became really interested in the photography and creative side of the social media and that is when I started looking into the possibility of changing courses to suit my new interest. BCU offered a Digital Marketing degree which was fast track so it was only 2 years which suited me perfectly. I have since then had lots of incredible opportunities with amazing briefs. Now currently taking on my final major project and the opportunity of joining the Tribera academy arose and has been incredible. Learning new things every week and seeing how to use the skills in industry. Tribera has been a brilliant way to carry on my learning whilst still at university.
What is it about the creative marketing world that genuinely pulls you in?
I have always had a love for art and design, so creating content is a lot of fun.
Why do you want to build your career here in Birmingham?
Birmingham is my home and I have met and spoke to lots of people in marketing around the city so while I’m still young I want to explore what opportunities my home city has to offer.
Where do you want your career to head over the next couple of years?
My dream role would be to create content for sports teams and brands that promote new ideas and show new merchandise.
What is something about you that has nothing to do with marketing?
Something that might surprise people is the fact I actually did work experience for a few months during college for a local architecture company. I also run a clothing brand with my friends.
How has working with AI changed the way you think and work?
working with ai
During the academy I have learnt lots of new skills involving AI and interesting ways of how I can use it to help further my work in the future. The main takeaway for me is how it can help with creative block and how you can use AI to give suggestions or recommendations to help kickstart your creative ideation phase.
Where do you think you will thrive?
strengths and focus
The area that has the most pull for me is creative due to the fun aspect of the role and how you are the final piece to the chain and your work can reach the audience, I am also interested in strategy and how you can connect and plan to reach those audiences.
Which technical and professional skills have you sharpened during the programme?
KEY SKILLS MASTERED
I have used Meta ads before but what I have learnt from the academy is how important captions can be and how they can define how the audience reacts after seeing the ad.
What kinds of roles and responsibilities are you now ready to take on?
ready for
I am ready for a creative role where I work with a team, I believe my artistic skills and eye for detail would be a great asset to any agency. I can comfortably say that I can use AI to my advantage and it will become a huge part of my skills. I still want to learn as much as I can so a perfect role for me now would be a creative junior role, where I work with a team and can soak up any tricks of the trade.