Interviews, insight & analysis on digital media & marketing

My Digital Hero: Doug Kessler, Velocity

We’re asking some of our industry’s leading figures to nominate their digital hero and to explain what’s so special about them.

The digital industry is cursed with the affliction of bestowing ‘guru’ status on people simply doing their job. But when it comes to content marketing, Velocity Partners’ creative director and co-founder Doug Kessler comes close to that description.

He was one of the first to properly call out the danger of the torrent of substandard ‘content’ being pumped out under the name of content marketing in his brilliant presentation Crap: Why the Single Biggest Threat to Content Marketing is Content Marketing.

Who is your digital hero?

 Dave Welch, our head of developers at Velocity.

What have they done to win hero status in your eyes?

Unbridled enthusiasm for great digital work; an amazing team-builder and colleague; the most articulate dev on the planet (especially when explaining things to non-techies). And all-round nice guy.

How has their heroism helped drive digital?

Well, it’s driven digital for our agency and for our clients.  We’re finding new ways to tell stories on screens.

We’re getting better at UX. We’re grabbing the new Gutenberg release of WordPress with both hands, we’re nailing our web build processes and exploring new formats… all thanks to Dave!

What the biggest challenges in digital we need another hero to solve?

Leaving behind the print paradigm that still grips most content marketing.

Fully embracing what digital can do instead of replicating books and brochures.

What is your most heroic personal achievement so far in digital?

The Ultimate 5G Explainer we did for Sprint Business was a big step for us.

A multimedia long page packed with CGI, animations, a YouTube series, and more stuff like that. All in one, rich experience!  Fun.