Woman Of The Year Nominee: B.A. Albert

Read how B.A. Albert thrives as a leader of a national advertising agency.

by Mary Welch

October 17, 2008

W hen B.A. Albert packed her portfolio and moved to Atlanta in 1977 to work as an art director for Pringle Dixon Pringle, the field of women creative directors was “mighty slim pickin’s ,” she says. “ There was Nancy Vaughn at Burton-Campbell, but she moved back to New York and there weren't any others around for a long time. It didn’t make sense then and it doesn’t make sense now because so many of the buying and purchasing decisions are made by women that you’d think companies would want women involved in the marketing of the products.”
     
Pause for a smile. “You’d think.”
     
Albert, who was recently named chief creative officer and president of Grey Atlanta, is still atop a field of “slim pickin’s.” Few women have been so successful – and successful for so long – as Albert, who has the rare ability to manage people, clients and deliver award-winning creative with grace and panache.
     
“I’ve never felt like I was representing The Woman,” she says. “In fact, being the only woman has given me a lot of breaks. There wasn’t anyone else to call when they wanted a woman’s opinion. It was truly a blessing because it got me some extra attention that I might not have gotten otherwise.”
     
But she had to make a few changes in order to be taken seriously in the ad business. “When I came here I was told I couldn’t be Betty Ann from Alabama,” she says. “Too redneck. I didn’t dare go with it. So I became B.A. What are you going to do?”
     
Jim Heekin, chairman and CEO of Grey Global Group in New York, calls Albert “a leading brand unto herself. Her passion for big, bold creative ideas in every medium and dedication to client success knows no boundary.”
   
“Advertising has been good for me and it’s been a great experience,” she says. “Advertising, especially in the South, is all about relationships. It’s a human, human business. It’s getting people to believe in you and in your talent. There is a lot of talent out there but it’s all about trust. You have to be your best, laugh and tell the truth.”
    
Albert has created her own brand by doing award-winning work since she first hit town. She has held top posts at several for-its-time creative powerhouses such as McDonald & Little, Burton-Campbell, Earle Palmer Brown, and DMB&B.
    
It’s a high-powered, fast-paced world – one that is totally different from her upbringing.
    
Albert spent her childhood as one of five children in a “big happy family” in Decatur, Ala., that sounds right out of Mayberry. Her father drove an Edsel station wagon. “The horn honked when we turned left, and I recall I was mortified,” she says. “I constantly made treehouses and forts with my brothers where we would battle the neighbors in berry wars and disappear into mammoth piles of leaves. Contrary to popular belief, we did wear shoes, but only when we absolutely had to. We built our own go-carts and sleds, but only used the latter when we got a rare snow. Unbeknownst to my parents, my brothers taught me to drive at age 11 in a VW-chassis dune buggy. (I still prefer older cars, now driving a ’55 T-bird.) At the time I grew up, houses were not locked, and we rode bikes until midnight. It was good to be a kid.”

    
Although her childhood was idyllic, she doesn’t recall having a lot of ambition. “I went to college and studied art. I had an affinity for art and a gut feeling I would be good at it. I thought it would be useful in decorating my house. Honestly. I just figured I’d be married and have 14 children. Life doesn’t always work out like you plan.”
    
She moved to Atlanta and found her home. “I have an affinity for the ad community. I like the people who think differently and the work is fun. The people are kooky and there’s never a dull moment. I came after the era of ‘Mad Men,’ – thank goodness – but it’s still a high-pressured, insane life. It’s hard work, and it’s harder work today than ever before.”
    
The challenge, Albert says, is that advertising is no longer “just doing ads. It’s really communicating with people in so many ways. There’s been more changing in the ad world in the last 12 months than the last 12 years!”
     
Jack Priblo, senior manager of corporate marketing for Georgia-Pacific, worked with Albert when she was still at Match Inc. A few years later and they are working together again.
    
“I’m delighted about that,” he says. “She’s terrific and she has a great mind for advertising. Easy to work with and very clever. I think it all comes naturally to her. She’s very creative, but even more important, she understands our brand and knows how to help us reach our target audiences.”

    
Albert, who has a slew of creative awards, including the Silver Medal Award given by the Ad Club for the person who has contributed the most to the local advertising community, keeps a notebook by her bed to write down ideas or sketch out a thought. “That’s the creative process,” she says, “but it has to be based on a real strong strategy. Creative people are free to fly as long as there is a marketing strategy. It’s brand acceleration. Once you have the marketing, you just take off.”
    
From the beginning Albert has, indeed, taken off and kept soaring. Before joining Grey, she headed Match Inc., an ad agency she co-founded with Elizabeth Baskin (now CEO of Tribe Inc.).
    
“Elizabeth and I were friends. She was a copywriter and I was an art director,” she recalls. “ We were sitting around talking about the business and we looked at each other and said if everyone else can start an agency, so could we. There was a need for a nimble creative shop.”
    
The two women opened their doors with no clients and sat on the floor with their Rolodexes and address books calling friends saying they were in business. “Within three weeks we had 13 projects and none of them were the people we called. The business came from everywhere. People love to help a start-up.”
    
Under Albert’s direction, Match became one of the top agencies attracting clients such as Saint Joseph’s Hospital, EZ-GO Golf Carts, Nature’s Own Bread, Shoney’s, ChoicePoint and Vanity Fair Intimates. She shut the doors earlier this year.
    
“It was a great 12 years; a wonderful experience,” she says. “Again, it was a time of people believing in you and your people. We had some really really great clients.”
    
Today, she is heading up Grey Atlanta but has the full resources of the Grey Group, which is one of the world’s largest communications conglomerates, behind her. Clients include Procter & Gamble, Canon, 3M, GlaxoSmithKline and the Darden Restaurants (which includes LongHorn Steakhouses).
    
“This is an incredible opportunity for me and it’s one I never expected,” she says. “Grey’s a smart agency and I know that they expect work that is very creative and very targeted. It’s a bit of rebuilding here but we’re going to kick doors down and get business. We’ve got a staff that lives and breaths advertising and doing great work for clients and I’m thrilled to be heading up the office here.”
     
And while she’s back on top leading a national agency, she has been around enough to live by two truisms. “The first is that you really are only as good as your last ad,” she says.
    
“The second is: Don’t let the bastards get you down!”