When the Obama campaign offered her a job in the Ohio field office in 2012, this Buckeye state native almost turned it down. After all, she had just vacated a social media gig at Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble Co. to move to Chicago to work at PR agency Weber Shandwick.
“I felt conflicted about whether going back to Ohio would be a step back,” Ashley Bryant remembers. Her family and friends urged her to take the risk, and she did: In fact, Ms. Bryant’s efforts in the digital realm-chiefly on the campaign’s website and in mobile and video ads-helped shade the swing state blue. The small staff also gave her license to tackle projects without the safety net, or bureaucracy, of the typical agency.
Today, her “get stuff done” mentality serves her well at 270 Strategies, a consultancy founded by top Obama campaign operatives Mitch Stewart and Jeremy Bird. The firm combines the grist of grass-roots organizing with digital savvy and effective analytics, a multipronged approach useful for clients such as the Chicago Cubs, which sought help when garnering support for Wrigley Field renovations.
“Ashley has the rare balance of being creative and detail-oriented,” says Betsy Hoover, another Obama campaign insider who now is a partner at 270 Strategies. “She has an eye for things that break the mold.”
Read original story at Crain’s.
