Alex Chamberlen is Business Development Director at Engage Digital Partners, with a media and digital career spanning a quarter of a century. He was selected as Abeed Janmohamed’s digital hero and now passes on the honour.
Who is your digital hero?
Paul Rogers, Chief Strategy Officer at AS Roma is my digital hero.
What has he done to win hero status in your eyes?
He has a creative spirit and is always looking to challenge the norm, do different, be bold and brave.
He was highly successful at Liverpool FC where he implemented a multi-language localisation strategy way ahead of other Premier League club.
How has his heroism helped drive digital?
He has championed digital within Raptor Sports, the owner of AS Roma, and has been consistently innovative, imaginative and bold.
Initiatives such as involving fans in the re-design of the club website back in 2015 through Reddit to featuring missing children alongside transfer players, which resulted in huge awareness and positive results.
The AS Roma ‘admin’ was a masterstroke in community management and helps fans and visitors to Roma’s channels get a feel for the tone of the club, and a chance to join the conversation.
What are the biggest challenges in digital we need another hero to solve?
The biggest challenge may be to drive organic growth on channels that are now making this less and less easy or possible.
The emergence of new players such as Tik Tok is always welcome as it may allow for rapid audience growth and engagement without solely relying on paid media.
What is your most heroic achievement so far in digital?
I am not sure I have achieved anything heroic in digital but I was instrumental in turning ESPNCricinfo from a business that was losing hundreds of thousands each month into a profitable business inside a year.
Whilst leading sales for the IPL website back in 2008 I was held hostage in the Mumbai attacks and managed to escape along with another English guest at the Trident Oberoi hotel.
