Episode 46 - Asha Oberoi

Join host Adrian Cropley as he dives into the world of digital strategy and data-driven insights with Asha Oberoi, Managing Director and Head of Digital and Insights at FTI Consulting. With over 20 years of experience in media and consulting, Asha shares her journey from an early fascination with news and information to becoming a leader in using data to shape digital strategies.

Discover her insights on the importance of data in communication, the challenges of navigating the digital landscape, and the critical role of instinct and bravery in forging a successful career. Tune in for valuable tips, engaging stories, and the passionate plea for communicators to embrace data-driven decision-making.

Don't miss this enlightening conversation from 'A View From the Top'!

Also register for the free event featuring Asha Oberio, Adrian Cropley and Alex Manchester 'Why Comms Leaders Must Act Now on Data, AI and Social

Transcript

Adrian Cropley: 0:05

Hey everyone, and welcome back to A View From the Top. I'm your host Adrian Cropley, and as always, it's great to have you with us. This podcast is brought to you by the Center for Strategic Communication Excellence, where we chat with some of the most inspiring communication professionals from around the world diving into their careers, their insights, and the moments that shape them. Last time we caught up with Anthea Cudworth, who is one of our, center fellows and a powerhouse in corporate affairs and governance. Today, we are shifting gears to the world of digital strategy and data-driven insights with someone who's been leading the way in this space. I'm really thrilled to welcome Asha Oberoi, Managing Director and Head of Digital and Insights for FTI Consulting. Asha is all about using data to uncover what stakeholders really think. Shaping digital strategies that help organizations, not just build their reputation, but also protect it. With over 20 years in media and consulting, she's worked with senior leaders to navigate the ever-changing digital landscape, making sure their social media content and engagement strategies hit the mark. She's also a big part of our communication community, serving on the IABC New South Wales board and helping professionals grow and connect. Asha's got a real passion for turning insights into action. Whether it's helping brands manage a crisis, fine tuning their messaging, or just getting better at engaging with audiences across platforms like LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook and of course, X. Asha, welcome to A View From the Top! It's great to have you.

Asha Oberoi: 1:49

Yeah, I'm really looking forward to the chat. It's nice to take the time to, just, connect and think back about my career and where it's come from and where it's going.

Adrian Cropley: 1:58

And it's, you know, it is often a scary thing'cause I'm gonna get you to go, well, let's take the mind back a number of years to this so I, I hope I never make people feel ancient or old as we we're doing it.

Asha Oberoi: 2:10

I think I might feel tired by the end of it, but I'm sure, you know, I feel very proud about the career I've had, to be honest. I'm enjoying indulging in it.

Adrian Cropley: 2:17

Great. Well, let's jump into it and I'm going to get you to cast your mind back. Is, often a question I ask our guests is, was this space something you wanted to get into when you were younger or did you follow a different path

Asha Oberoi: 2:32

Mm mm. I think I am on the path that I wanted to be on. Honestly, I have always been, very, very, interested in news and information from a very early age. I mean, I'm look as young as three, four years old. My household was, obsessed with information. So my father was a, very early riser 4:00 AM CFACs, and teletext, where he was getting stocks information. He was an accountant, and an entrepreneur. And when that wasn't on, it was the news. When 24 hour news came about, then we migrated to that. So I've grown up in a household, even to this day the news is always on and we are always consuming as much information as we can to our detriment, sometimes I have to tell myself to switch off, so I always wanted to be connected to that world and that profession. and I studied journalism. I particularly loved documentaries, long form documentaries, I wanted to be a documentary filmmaker.

Adrian Cropley: 3:37

Oh wow. That would've been a fascinating career.

Asha Oberoi: 3:40

Yeah, and I've soon realized there's probably three jobs available and about 4,000 people who wanted them. So I realized that probably odds were not in my favor. I remember being at school, in the sixth form as it was called, and being in charge or head of the sort of. Student newspaper, or having a spare moment, always reading the newspaper and I was having to decide what I was going to go and study. I loved English, I loved languages. That was what I specialized in. There was a moment where I think my parents wanted me to become some sort of UN delegate or representative of language and strategy that was always kind of a place that I felt most comfortable in. And I had a moment to decide was it going to be, politics, broadcast journalism, which is really where I was heading. And when I started applying for university degrees and I studied at, Bournemouth University, it was a new course that had been created and it was called Multimedia Journalism. And I'm a very instinctive person and I just, something in my gut told me, you know, learning, or studying forms of journalism that were the future rather than what was present would serve my career better in the long run. So I, I, I opted for, you know, taking a chance on this new course.

Adrian Cropley: 5:01

There, I'm sorry to jump in the, the context there is, is very much at that time you can't see, hindsight's a wonderful thing, but you can't see that future, so that Instinctiveness to jump into that I think was really important for you. Right?

Asha Oberoi: 5:16

Yes, very much so. And has served throughout my career actually, instinctiveness and I think a sense of bravery, mixed with a healthy dose of naivety. Has been a common thread throughout my career. I just sort of feel that I know something's right and, I'm compelled to do it. And, regardless of the consequences, I will take the chance. And even though it's been very difficult many, many times because. In my particular career, it's been about changing, being in an environment where you are changing or transforming an industry that is very challenging. And I've learned to do that better over the years. So yeah, I took the plunge and I went for this multimedia journalism degree. And we were the first cohort in the UK, in 1995 to be studying internet journalism as well as broadcast and print and, you know, doing your NCTGA exams and learning to do shorthand, which I can still remember, splicing radio, so you got exposure to every single form of journalism that there was. As much as I loved broadcast journalism and won a few awards around early broadcast, content I was producing, I felt very drawn to the internet and the information, the access to information, I found just too much of a draw. And so it drew me away from more mainstream media as we call it now, to digital.

Adrian Cropley: 6:44

And it's, you know, it really impressed me to hear that so early in your career, winning some of those awards and I won't divert the topic we'll, go on talking about your career, but we might come back to that'cause the importance of, things like awards to measure your work and, we can talk about that because both you and I are very much, involved with the IABC and Anthea who we spoke to last episode was talking about the Gold Quill awards.'cause she's chairing that, and we were reflecting on the importance of having those awards. Hey, look, we might as well talk about it now. What were some of the things, winning some of those early awards, what did that do to help you in your, journey?

Asha Oberoi: 7:25

Yeah, it's a great question. I, was a young broadcast journalist of the year for a piece I did, and I was very young I think I was 21 I think a long time ago. But to answer your question, what it did and, and, and you know, what, what, that recognition gives you is I think, confirmation that you are exploring the right areas. You know, it's a reward that, your industry peers who are typically, and in my case, were way more experienced than I was, could see some talent, or could see that if you were trying something new that was being rewarded. So it's a lot of validation and it was sort of a warm pat on the back or an encouragement to keep going in the direction I was going in. So I think that validation throughout your career is very important. For me it was particularly because, again, I was involved in transformation projects. I was head of multimedia at the Press Association and that was a really important time in my career. And one of the best sort of jobs I ever had was I was 24 and it was, I think 2000 something, I can't remember. 2004 I think it was. But you know, it was really challenging. You were taking a, basically a print text based organization, and the challenge that the CEO and the board had sent me was, you know, turn this into a video organization and that that was not easy. So, yeah, recognition, whether it be in award form or public recognition through promotion, or validation that your strategy is right. But you know, that, and then that is being echoed by the leadership, has always been very important to me because. Yeah, as I say, when you're trying to forge a new path, it's quite lonely. You know, and you often will question yourself to say, you know it, gosh, is it worth it? Is it worth me really, you know, ruffling people's feathers, pointing out some necessary changes and the validation, whether it be an award form is very important recognition that you're doing the right thing, you're going in the right direction, and to keep going.

Adrian Cropley: 9:30

And it's really, you know, when you think about that recognition being so important, particularly when you're navigating new territory, because there's that pioneer spirit of moving into something that's completely new and, the context of you moving into those different forms of medium, particularly the internet being so young at that time there was still that unknown, and so I can imagine that validation was really important, but also it was an education process for people around seeing that those new areas of communication were being recognized.

Asha Oberoi: 10:10

Yes. And I've, you know, another area of recognition has come from the audience, right? From consumers in, you know, in the early days in the UK I was working at ITN and I was responsible for much of the commercial businesses at ITN. So that was the licensing of archive or news content and we started to explore, new businesses that we could invest in. And I was very involved in that from a strategic perspective, working with the CEO and the COO, two of the most incredible colleagues that I've ever worked with and very, inspiring and taught me much of what I do today, came from that time. But I remember picking a couple of businesses that we ended up being on the board of, and at the time, one was a video production, company specializing in making short form video for MSN and for YouTube. And we were making, and this is no joke, we were making cat videos in two thousands.

Adrian Cropley: 11:11

That's the idea came from. That's why it came so popular.

Asha Oberoi: 11:15

2007. And to go back to this point about audience validation, like the amount of flack I took for that, from very serious journalists to IT Ed and IT, you know, and Channel four news, who saw or felt they were, you know, their business was investing in something that took away from hardcore news journalism, you know, that they felt they were losing budget, they weren't being able to travel around the world. And here was I pouring, you know, money into this short-form video production company. But that business was later acquired by MSN and made ITN a significant amount of money. Another business that I was on, board I was on was also acquired by Discovery. That was actually short-form content for education, and teaching English as a foreign language in China. And that was bought by discovery. Again, made ITN a lot of money. So the audience. Gave me validation and gave me confirmation that even though my colleagues around me internally were not supportive of what we were doing externally, the views were there, right? The audience were downloading, viewing cat videos, you know, people were subscribing to these services, people were licensing and buying stuff so that, you know, that validation, and maybe that was a link back to sort of the, the data part of my career that I'm really enjoying now. Seeing that validation through the numbers,

Adrian Cropley: 12:38

Yes,

Asha Oberoi: 12:39

Whether that was engagement, whether that was, revenue, whether that was, acquisition again was another pat on the back to say, yes, you are doing the right thing, your strategy is right, that this is what the audience wants. So yeah, I think that has always been a comfort to me, that consumers will inevitably, whether they be, consumers or citizens they know what they want, they know what they're doing, and we should listen to them and what the data tells us about them.

Adrian Cropley: 13:06

They're our test. They're the ones that we really need to be listening to, to go, are we on the right track or we're not, because we're soon told they're very, very, particularly these days, very opinionated when you're on the right or the wrong track depending on their views.

Asha Oberoi: 13:21

Exactly yeah. And you, you know, today we have to take some of those views with a pitch of salt. But, you know, there's no smoke without fire. So it may, you know, people do skew very angry these days. But there's a reason for that, and I find that psychology very fascinating you know, why are people angry? Well, things are difficult at the moment, and, and they have been for some time. So, you know, I, I do tell my clients often that you ignore your audience, and particularly the consumer audience at your peril.

Adrian Cropley: 13:47

Yeah. Absolutely. So tell me a little bit about some of those early jobs that you did that kind of shaped where you ended up today.

Asha Oberoi: 13:56

Well, I think the few moments stand out, but working at, BBC News Online, I was an Executive Producer there. One of my first jobs and, you know, it was a new team of people that had come from different parts of the BBC or externally to build something new. Which was the online platform in 2001 and my job, particularly given the background I'd had in broadcast journalism, was to create a video offering. And we're talking about 56K video and anyone, younger than us probably dunno what I'm talking about tiny little postage stamps of video

Adrian Cropley: 14:30

Yes.

Asha Oberoi: 14:31

streamed on the BBC News, news website. But, you know what I learned through that period was that consumers again listened to, they wanted video on the internet, I remember having a standout row with the head of, the news website because, by streaming the Queen Mother's funeral live on the internet, which was some crazy idea that I had, we actually crashed the BBC news website. And he hauled me into his office, or, you know, 22 years of me screaming at me, you know,"the BBC News website is down, it cannot be down". And I was like, this is the best news ever. You should be so thrilled. And he's like, what are you talking about? I said, well, clearly we don't have the right infrastructure for video and we need to invest in video, that this is what people want. And he's screaming at, he is, no, no, no people just want text on the internet and they want it fast. And I was like, whatcha talking about the B in BBC stands for broadcast. And I just remember this, this guy was like six foot five, he's 50 years old. I was 22 and I was, you know, he was screaming at me and I was sort of screaming back at him, but I thought it was, I thought it was.

Adrian Cropley: 15:43

Well done you.

Asha Oberoi: 15:44

Yeah, I thought it was the best day ever. Yeah, it would get validation, recognition, this is what the audience wants. And, you know, a message to, those that are coming into the industry, and who are just naturally disruptors, get the data for your instinct. But if your instinct is telling you something, follow that instinct. Don't ignore it. And don't be afraid to challenge. You know, I've definitely learned to be softer in my approach. It's difficult when you're young. You are in such a hurry and you don't realize how long you've got.

Adrian Cropley: 16:14

I know, I reflect back and go, oh boy, you were a little bit too ballsy when you were in your twenties.'cause I reflect on some of the conversations I used to have with executives. I'm going, I'm surprised I didn't get sacked.

Asha Oberoi: 16:27

Yeah. Yeah, me too many times. Yeah. My boss at the time who was, you know, again, big believer in what I was doing and gave me that validation. I remember him pulling me aside and he, he was saying, you know, I just couldn't understand why no one could see what I could see. that the internet was gonna all be about video.

Adrian Cropley: 16:44

But the interesting context there. And I'm reflecting on it, I mean, some people have gone through that, you know, of of our generation. But for the now generation, what it took to stream something was a lot of people, a lot of power, a lot of, what did we used? They used to have an encoder, wasn't it

Asha Oberoi: 17:04

Yeah.

Adrian Cropley: 17:05

first,

Asha Oberoi: 17:06

FTP

Adrian Cropley: 17:07

yes, that's it. You had a team of people to get something out there live today. Now you just pick up a phone and, and you're streaming right.

Asha Oberoi: 17:15

Yeah,

Adrian Cropley: 17:16

Back then it was a job and a half. But I have to share with you a very funny story because the first time I organized a live stream,'cause I worked for Ericsson globally. And being here in Australia, we had the, CEO come from Sweden. And we said, wouldn't this be a great opportunity, Adrian and his ideas to go, we can do the first live stream ever for Ericsson right? And I tell you what, it turned into a huge project. I was working with IT, we were looking all the technology and the servers and whatever else. But we pulled it off. We did this livestream, but I'm reflecting on you crashing.

Asha Oberoi: 17:57

Yeah.

Adrian Cropley: 17:58

the BBC website, we did exactly the same because of the power this thing took. But there was two problems. One is, that we crashed it because of the load that came into the system, but somebody forgot to buy more than 75 licenses.

Asha Oberoi: 18:17

Oh, yes,

Adrian Cropley: 18:17

when 75 people logged in, it stopped.

Asha Oberoi: 18:20

Yeah. Oh, wow. There was so many lessons from that, right? You know, I've been there so many times, Adrian, where you're lying in bed at night and thinking to yourself, oh, you know, crap. Why did I come up with this idea? I've got no idea how it's gonna go. But I've bitten off this thing now, and I've just gotta bloody keep chewing. I've gotta get it, you know, I've gotta do it. But, you know, you learn so much from pushing that boundary and pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone. That for me, that has been, a very comfortable place now where I'm, you know, I'm very. Comfortable with the uncomfortable. And I think that is a big lesson for everybody, not just communicators, but particularly communicators at the moment, because again, we're going through so much change and disruption, but you have to try new things and it's only really in that failure, right? That moment where you realize there's 75 licenses and I needed 3000. Change the game the same time that even though he was shouting and screaming at me, I'm sure the penny dropped for him because we suddenly invested in, much more infrastructure and servers to do streaming. And when it came to, big events later on, like actually Princess Diana, you know, dying and then her, body being flown into the UK from. France. There were millions and millions and millions of people around the UK who watched that online. And I think that was a real turning point in the strategy of the BBC to invest even more heavily into some of their online platforms. But also the fact that audiences want what they want. They don't necessarily want what you give them. Although they do need a healthy mixture of both. But it was, you know, I remember that at that time in early two thousands in the UK and, and I was very grateful that the BBC you could really experiment with a lot of budget to play around with some of these things and really help build an industry. It was a very insightful time to recognize that people will eventually want to watch what they want, when they want to. And that's what we're all doing today, you know, in 2025. So having that vision, um, has been, uh, for, for anything that's new and emerging has, has been a critical component of my career whether that was in the UK or in Australia I sort of view my career in two volumes, volume one and volume two, because there was such a. drastic shift from different stages of my career that I sort of don't see them as chapters, which is why I call them volumes, all of that journalism and then the sort of business side of journalism and digital journalism in the UK was volume one, and then coming to Australia was much more about communications and strategic communications and data so, but clearly the first part.

Adrian Cropley: 21:03

Yeah.

Asha Oberoi: 21:04

So certainly the first part informed the second part and ending up at, FTI consulting. When I saw the job title of Digital and Insights, I was like, wow, that literally represents the two volumes of my career. I've gotta, I've gotta go for this job.

Adrian Cropley: 21:18

Yes. Is that what brought you to Australia?

Asha Oberoi: 21:21

FTI?

Adrian Cropley: 21:22

Yeah.

Asha Oberoi: 21:22

No, no, no, no. Um, I, I was here for, I've been here, it was 10 or 12. 10 or 11 years before FTI. So, no, my husband brought me to Australia. Love brought me, brought me to Australia, my husband's Australian. We met in Europe, in the UK and the us and we were on that side of the world for a while. Much of the work that I was doing with ITN at the time, I mentioned that, teaching English as a foreign language or using video to teach English as a foreign language in China meant that I was doing a lot of business development in the Asian markets, so I was spending a lot of time in Asia Pacific and so there was a point where we thought we would launch, ITN International would be, headquartered in this part of the world. So I always had an eye on this part of the world. But, um, yeah, my husband being an Aussie, he was fairly clear that when it came to kids and, a home life that would need to be in Sydney. So yeah, we made the move in 2011.

Adrian Cropley: 22:23

Oh, fantastic. And it's, you talk about your current role now. I'd love to explore that.'cause there's a lot of shaping that went on and it seems like that volume one led very nicely into volume two.

Asha Oberoi: 22:35

Indeed.

Adrian Cropley: 22:36

And so talk to me a little bit about the work that you do now because, you reflect back and think about all of those early days of tackling technology and, the downsides and the upsides of it. But is it any easier today?

Asha Oberoi: 22:52

Gosh, no. Yes and no. It's easier, you know, that point about the anxiety that you have when you're trying to forge a new path and sort of, you know, I don't lie awake at night thinking, oh my God, what am I doing? Quite the opposite. I've got a lot of confidence that the advice I'm giving my clients. Is right, because I've got so much experience now, in, different situations that when I'm advising them, sometimes it's the ninth, 10th, 20th time that I've done the particular thing that I'm advising on. So that part is easier. I don't worry so much about that. But change is always difficult. What I'm doing now to answer your question is I'm really advising clients, around, reputation fundamentally, and the enterprise value of their businesses. During transformative moments in that business's journey or, crisis issues. I'm providing that advice through social media expertise, and data which, social does provide. So it's either. You know, you are advising people not just on their own brand strategy, but also their earned, what their paid and, how that's playing out across digital. But also it's increasingly a source of issues, where, issues that are social media born issues or played out across digital. Um, but that often is also the solution to, to the problem. Um. And, you know, I rely very heavily on the data, whether that be, from content, so your views and engagement or whether that be social listening data in terms of back to, you know, consumers, how they think and they, how they feel about an issue and packaging that or into, ultimately into advice. And that's the piece I love the most, evidence-based. Data driven advice that I can give my clients. And it gives me a level of confidence that when they come to me with a particular question or a particular problem, that I'm giving them advice that is based and grounded in data. So I will always. My clients will know if they're listening. That I always say, okay, well what, what problem are we trying to solve? What is the issue? And all those years that I spent in business, as a board director or working for CEOs, or, responsible for a P&L meant that, I know that this is always linked back or should be linked back to a business objective.

Adrian Cropley: 25:14

Yeah.

Asha Oberoi: 25:15

Or for, you know, in a crisis or an issue situation, the stakes are really, really high. And for the individual that I'm working with, it's potentially the worst day of their career or their, you know, that their week and their month, their year. Because if it's a crisis situation, the stakes are very high. It's a share price impact. It's potentially the loss of A CEO. and their career is on the line. So I take all of that very seriously, and I do see the, you know, the. I always look at it through the lens of the business and the impact on the business, and that's something I try and, really encourage my colleagues and my team to do as well. It's very easy when you are younger and you're just, you know, executing, for example, on a digital channel. It's easy to forget that there's a real world problem or a real life issue at the end of, connected to this, that is where we should be focusing our efforts around.

Adrian Cropley: 26:05

And I think that's a really good tip for all communication professionals, if you link back to what that absolute business need is, what's the essential, what problem are we solving for the organization? That's where we put that value on, on steroids. Really, it's because the reality is we are not just content producers and, and, and getting out of that head space is, I think is

Asha Oberoi: 26:29

No, no, no. I, I'm a, you know, I look back, I'm a strategic business person. I'm very entrepreneurial and I'm around, you know, growth and delivering value, but I do that through communications. I do that, using digital channels and understanding, audiences through channels. But ultimately it's business advice and it's business solutions that you're giving. So that's what I'm doing now and, there is a lot of advice that we are, giving clients around reputation and so many issues that are born through social media. So it's kind of interesting. I do enjoy that and I particularly enjoy the sort of investigative aspects where, content or issues that might be employee related, whistleblowers, or leaked emails, or deleted tweets. You know, they will come to us either through the board or, the executive themselves or a law firm, and we will provide our insight and our expertise on that sort of social digital side. So it's been a super interesting few years I must be honest.

Adrian Cropley: 27:33

Yes. What a really interesting career for you when you look at it round, you know, rounding that up in terms of where you started to where you are now. And of course you're still from early in career looking at those forward things, the, the technologies that are shaping us and obviously AI being the latest, but we'll save that topic because, I've got a treat for our listeners of, you're going to get another opportunity to learn from Asha and a couple of others, and I'll talk about that in a moment. But I would love for you to share maybe your top two or three tips you would share with communication professionals in really advancing their career. What, what are the things that you learned that says this, this actually makes you valuable to your organization?

Asha Oberoi: 28:20

Mm mm Well. I mean, in a nutshell, it's having that data driven insight and, you know, having a communication strategy that's supporting the business that is driven by the evidence that you have collected, whether that's, you know, day to day in terms of, yeah, looking at the volumes, quantifying the success of what you're doing or your team is doing, but also linking that back to the value that you are creating or when it comes to reputation, measuring how you have enhanced the value or protected the value. Yeah, I think that's the way we, I try and look at it, not just about being reactive or managing an issue, but actually, protecting the brand, growing the brand, and delivering enterprise value. And I think, for those communicators that are Chief Communications Officers, and they're sitting around the table advising the CEO, in my experience, they've got there because they've taken such a data-driven approach and they've been able to really measure the impact of what their team is doing and linking it back to that business objective. And they have the respect of their colleagues, particularly the financial colleagues like the CFO or even the revenue or marketing officers who are very data driven and can deliver demonstrable results that people understand comms has to do that too, and it is honestly a bit disappointing that in 2025, not everybody is doing that, and there are still so many businesses where communications is not at the seat of the executive table. Too often I'm seeing the Chief Communications Officer or the Head of Communications, Director of Communications is reporting into the CFO, or you know, the worst scenario for me is that they're reporting into the HR Director. I just don't think that's the right structure. They are a function in their own right that's supporting and building enterprise value and that should be represented at the top table now increasingly that's changing, so that's good. And I think, you know, when it comes to reputation, and issues and crises and moments of transformation, then the corporate affairs professional is often looked at as the person who's going to solve that will lead the business out of that and advise the CEO. So I do notice that the companies that have gone through significant crises, particularly ones, you know, I've seen that from supporting them and working with them. After that, they have the head of comms or they have a chief comms work person at the table. At that executive table because they know what happened when they didn't have it, and that person has guided them through it. So

Adrian Cropley: 30:57

isn't it a shame it takes a crisis for that to happen

Asha Oberoi: 31:00

I know. Yeah. Yeah. Well, well, we, yes, but we have to take some responsibility for that as communicators because why is that? Why is it still that we aren't there? And I think that's because too many of us, or too many of the profession is turning their back on the things that could help them get there. And it is evidence and it is data, and it's Excel and it's, you know, technology. and that would be my advice. You know, whether you're young, old, beginning, middle, or at the end of your career, you cannot turn your back on data, you cannot turn your back on, you know, listening tools, spreadsheets. You, you, you know, you've got to try and quantify, the impact and it, it's difficult. I appreciate it's difficult, but staying in the sort of, you know, the words of it and the word smithery of it and that is not a safe space because that is highly commoditized. AI is doing an incredible job of replacing the wordsmith theory of it. And so the communicator's role is definitely being disrupted and changed. But where I see, you know, where I see communicators needing to move more towards and where I spend a lot of my time because of digital is that nexus between communications and marketing and what the marketers have that you know, and there's often that rivalry between the two, right. And I think that's just a waste of everybody's time and effort. What we all need to do is work out, okay, well, what has made marketing successful? And the communicators that are too far away from some of the skills, for example, understanding paid advertising, understanding research and evidence-based strategies. And then implementing those strategies and measuring the impact of those strategies and reporting back on that. Those are, you know, and I love the marketers for years and years, decades have talked about their marketing tech stack. They know that there are a series of technologies that will allow marketers to do their job and deliver an outcome to the business. Comms needs a similar thing, a communications tech stack, and be able to lean into what marketers have been doing for some time. So I need to see, you know, I wanna see comms come closer towards that part of marketing and the intersection there is that technology that binds the two. And that's where I end up spending a lot of my time. All of that is pretty uncomfortable for a lot of people who are more left brain and they are more creative and they're more about the words and the feeling and the emotion of communications, which is also really, really important. I'm not saying it doesn't matter, I'm just saying it has to be supercharged with those other elements so maybe the left and the right brain need to come together more. That's, you know, that's my, it's not even my advice, it's my plea to the industry because I do see quite an existential problem or challenge for us as communicators if we are not doing that now.

Adrian Cropley: 33:57

I could not agree more Asha, and I, this it's, this is a really good moment to talk about. We're gonna keep this conversation going'cause it is such an important one and just for our listeners, we do have a webinar that is going to come up and Ash has agreed to be part of that. So I know you're going to want to join this because we brought together and, and Ash will be working with myself and Alex Manchester from Traffic AI. And we are really committed to the whole issue of data driven decisions, data about how we are going to be able to work as communication professionals as we move into the future. So we've got the, A Team, Asha, Adrian, and Alex together. And, sorry, it wasn't that, 1980s, throwback to the A Team and Mr. T. But we're gonna be exploring why comms leaders must act now on AI, data, and social, and these are the three things that really we need to be looking at through a much more strategic filter right now. And I know your, your good friends with Alex. Alex has also been on our View From the Top. Traffic AI have been doing some amazing stuff in this area of measurement, which will make it more accessible to people. so I think this'll be a good session, moderated by Sia Papageorgiou, my co-founder at the center here, and that's coming up on April the 8th, and it'll be in two different time zones.

Asha Oberoi: 35:26

Yeah.

Adrian Cropley: 35:26

Let's get everybody on that one. Hey, Asha.

Asha Oberoi: 35:28

Definitely it's really important. I mean, honestly, I know the three of us feel that it's probably, a year or even two years too late. But given all three of us care so much, genuinely care so much about our colleagues and our profession, then I feel that, you know, I, I'm compelled to do it and I'm sure I will as usual, annoy someone, piss somebody off,

Adrian Cropley: 35:49

Yeah.

Asha Oberoi: 35:50

ruffle somebody's feathers. But hey

Adrian Cropley: 35:52

will, we will get a little bit edgy on this one because it is, it is the time to act well, it's after the time we should be acting. And we really do need to have serious conversations about that changing role for communication professionals. I cannot believe this time has gone so quickly. And, and I didn't get to talk about your role on IABC New South Wales Board, but let me do a plug and thank you for your, um, I was gonna say that American expression"Thank you for your service". Um, but thank you. Yes, thank you for your service on IABC Board in New South Wales. I'm so glad you're on that leadership team.

Asha Oberoi: 36:31

Yeah, and it's great. It's always amazing to be part of a board, you know, where you get to really make an impact change. So I think that's why I do it. And, you know, in, in consulting, consulting is a, it's a tough gig, right? It's you're building your, you're building a business, it's pretty aggressive and cutthroat and long hours. And, uh, and I love all of it, don't get me wrong, but it is also very nice to give back to the industry and, you

Adrian Cropley: 36:56

Creating balance

Asha Oberoi: 36:56

yeah, exactly. And, and there's some amazing talented people on the board and also in the association. And, you know, I just wanna make it grow and make it have a voice in this really important discussion about how our sector is really changing, very, very quickly.

Adrian Cropley: 37:11

Great. Thanks so much Asha, and thank you for your time today. Really appreciate it. Look forward to working with you in a few weeks time

Asha Oberoi: 37:19

Well, thanks Adrian. I love chatting to you. It's always, you know, it important for all of us that, that see this and see this urgency, and have solutions on how to mitigate some of the challenges to stick together and support each other. It's lonely at the top, at the view at the top can be lonely.

Adrian Cropley: 37:37

It can indeed. And thank you everyone for joining us on this episode of A View From the Top. Look forward to connecting next time. Happy communicating.