Mary Westbrook, for Bisnow on Business:  Have you ever felt that being a woman helped or hindered your career?
I try to not look at it that way. I just like to compete as an executive in the marketplace. But things have changed over the last 20 years. Certainly in the 80s there was a little bit of a different climate than there is today. I’m fortunate to sit on the board of directors at the Board of Trade and four or five other boards. But there were moments, particularly after I bought the firm in the mid 80s and late 80s, where you would get a comment like, “Well, if you want to transfer money between different bank accounts, you’ll have to have your boss authorize that.” But I was the boss! There was that occasional moment of acknowledgment that I was a little different than 90 percent of folks running firms, but in general I don’t feel that we’ve ever lost a piece of business or gotten a piece of business because I was a woman. It’s more about the competency of the firm at large and what we have to offer. I know there are others who came before me who haven’t been quite as fortunate, and they’re the real trailblazers.

Are there many women running marketing communications firm today?
On the one hand, there are a lot of women in the industry. But there are not many running firms. Even in the 90s, there was a CEO Roundtable here in Washington made up of all the agency heads where there were perhaps one or two other women. Even today, very few women head agencies and even fewer head agencies that have been around for 25 years like we have.

Did you have any childhood interests that may have led you into marketing and advertising?
When you’re growing up you don’t acknowledge it at the time. My dad, who did international sales and marketing for a very large corporation, obviously influenced me. My mom was an artist. When you think about that combo platter, it makes sense that that background might lead me in to career in advertising. Even as a youngster and in middle school and high school, I was a pom pom, I was president of my sorority, I was rush chairman — and I aced the economics courses. All those things tend to fall in line. You’re persuading, coaching, promoting.

So how did you get interested in this business?
I wish I could say I was brilliant in college and I knew exactly what I wanted to do. After four different majors, and no math, no science, no foreign language — what do you have? Advertising. For me it was the perfect solution, because I love having the opportunity to help people market their products or services. It’s like being the ultimate cheerleader. It’s the opportunity to contribute and change somebody’s outcome in terms of how their product or service is embraced by the public. I take that responsibility very seriously and I’m very competitive on behalf of our clients. One of the first jobs I got out of college was, oddly enough, as an assistant art director. It’s very strange that someone would start out on the creative side and go over to the business side. But I recognized that I was a perfectly average art director and I was a much better account management person. It’s the opportunity to help lead a team and craft messages that can impact your client’s bottom line. In that first job I recognized that this is what I was meant to do. I loved it. I remember thinking to myself, ”My God, they’re going to pay me to do this.”

What made you want to buy MDB Communications in the late 80s?
It just made sense. I had been with the firm for six years at that point and had help grow it. We had three different companies. We had MDB Communications. Then there was the original firm, Michael David Brown Inc., which was primarily Michael himself as an illustrator. And the third was a publishing company that put out limited edition fine art prints of his work. Between helping run all three entities and going from the West coast to the East coast, it became apparent that to do anything well, we really needed to focus on one entity. So the opportunity was presented to me and at the ripe age of 30 it sounded like a brilliant idea. At 30 you think you can do almost anything. I was young and I was single. So what if I failed? It was a wonderful opportunity to acquire a firm which I already knew and had helped to grow and market, with not a lot of downsides.

Does it still make sense looking back?
It does. It is certainly not what I thought it would be. At the time the industry was very different. When I started with the firm in 1981, and when I bought the firm in 1987, it was pre-Internet. The industry itself as a sector has changed so dramatically. The company I bought then is not what we are today. We’re quite a bit more than that, more services and more seasoned expertise. It’s just an evolution. It’s always in the process of change and making sure you remain relevant to your clients and your clients’ customers.

How did you afford to buy a company at age 30?
I sold my townhouse at the time. I got a $10,000 loan from my parents. Our total billings were under $500,000. So it’s not like I was buying General Motors. Therefore it was worth the opportunity and taking the chance. I obviously paid back the loan within a relatively short period of time. What became interesting was my understanding of working capital. We actually went from very humble beginnings in terms of billings to about $1.2 million in the first 18 months. The concept of working capital was not something I was familiar with but I became very familiar with it quickly. I had to.

In 2004 you said that advertising had lost its passion. Is that still the case?
I’m pleased to say we’re going into our third year of Advertising Week, from Sept. 18 to 22 this year. It’s something I helped conceive. We have had very successful Advertising Weeks, which celebrate the industry in our region and point out some very specific benefits: How many people the industry employs in this region, which is more than 421,000; how much revenue is generated from marketing and advertising in this region, which is more than $79 billion; and culturally what we contribute to the landscape. It’s important for companies here to understand that you don’t have to call agencies in New York or Chicago to handle your advertising accounts. Those agencies exist right here. This year I’m pleased to say that many industry leaders have signed on to participate, including senior executives from Discovery and Business Week. Things are getting better, and people are stepping up and supporting the concept of advertising as a community and as a vibrant industry in Washington.

How is marketing communications different today compared to the early 80s?
Consumer buying trends and consumer behavior have changed. But the media landscape has changed as well. You have a much more sophisticated consumer and a much more fragmented media landscape. Look what’s happening not just with the Internet but all different kinds of promotions in radio, television, cable. When I got into the business, there were three or four different networks. Now think about the different cable opportunities a person has in a given day. It’s really a different game. The people that have been successful are the ones that have been able to navigate that and embrace it, and get in front of it, and put themselves in a position of knowledge and authority so they can recommend good marketing solutions to their clients.

What are your biggest challenges running a firm like this today?
Continually staying in front of technology. Our clients rely upon us to do that. Every client now on the roster has a good dose of integration, not just the traditional radio, TV, print. It’s different kinds of promotional opportunities, it’s PR, it’s Internet, sponsorships or traditional banner advertising or even search engine keyword placement. The ability to stay on top of an ever-changing, ever-evolving media landscape is critical to our success. Secondly is finding the resources and talent that have that kind of enthusiasm and intellectual curiosity. We’re selling ideas, we’re selling concepts and strategies for our clients to sell more products and services or certainly to persuade. For instance, our work for the Fannie Mae Foundation in terms of generating tens of thousands of sponsored walkers and more than $7 million in support for the Help the Homeless walk-a-thon. You’re trying to persuade and encourage action. So staying on top of what the new creative and media can offer and finding the human resources and the talent that can service our clients best are probably our two biggest challenges.

What advice do you give businesses that may be interested in investing in advertising or some type of communication?
One of the things we start out with is where do they want to be. We start with the end game in mind and then it’s our job to find a path to that objective in the most efficient and effective manner. If someone says to me we’re a start-up brand, or even we’re a brand that we need to revitalize, we look at the challenges, the barriers we need to overcome and goals in terms of recognition and sales. I really look at advertising, marketing, communications as an investment. I think clients have every right to expect something at the end of six months, a year, two years to say I invested X and I need to see Y. We’ve had that point of view for quite some time, maybe a little ahead of the curve before some of our friendly competitors have. It wasn’t always looked upon that way. When people used to do image advertising in the 80s, they weren’t necessarily looking for an ROI. Now clients are very much tied to what can I demonstrate in terms of a return, and want to know what they can show their shareholders.

Describe a project you’re proudest of.
One of our most successful campaigns was for Loral Skynet, which is a global satellite services provider. They were just coming off a period of bankruptcy where they had been de-listed from the stock exchange. And we were able to take their investment and turn around perceptions domestically as well as internationally, including specifically Asia, where the concept of bankruptcy is not something that’s readily understood or embraced. When you say bankruptcy, people don’t realize you can reorganize and still function, and still service your customers, and still come out positively on the other end. In Asia, we were finding that our competitors were using Loral Skynet’s current status in bankruptcy to say, “They’re out of business. They can’t service you.” We were able to institute an effective advertising and public relations campaign that changed those perceptions and generated qualified leads by some major news networks to contact Loral Skynet to begin providing satellite services all over the world. That campaign was just highlighted with a Silver Inkwell global branding award from one of the major industry organizations. That was last year’s greatest achievement.

What about on the consumer side?
We’re equally proud of the work we do for the D.C. Lottery. There are lotteries all over the country, but specifically here in Washington they generate revenue for the general fund, which in many cases goes to support police and fire services and education. The campaign that we launched last year, which was called D.C. Daily Six, generated a tremendous return on investment for them to the point where it exceeded their expectations. We were able to deliver more sales and more revenue to the bottom line than they had anticipated. Therefore it’s a win for everybody. The District wins because they get more money going into their general fund which can support the city and the services that are provided here. It gave us an opportunity to work with the lottery to examine some new media opportunities. We did some promotional things differently. We did mobile billboards and taxi top digital advertising, which had never been brought to the city before. They trusted us enough to take some recommendations that were a little bit different from the traditional ones that other agencies would probably come up with. But we were able to turn that into significantly more revenue, exceeding the goal to where they were extremely pleased.

As the president of the firm, do you get to spend time on the creative side, or is mostly generating business?
I love generating business. I enjoy the creative environment and nothing makes my heart sing more than to see our work run, when you see your TV commercial or hear a radio spot or see a banner ad or what have you. What I love is finding opportunities for us to contribute. What can we do better, differently, faster than the next guy to help our client or prospective clients sell their products or services.

Where did you grow up?
All over the place. My dad was a very successful executive who kept getting promoted every two years. So we moved every two years. Which means I was the consummate new kid on the block and didn’t have any permanent friends. I had to introduce myself every time we moved. I’ve lived in California, Florida and Ohio. Oddly enough, I feel I’m a native Washingtonian. I went to several elementary schools here. We would go from Florida back to Washington. Ohio, then back to Washington. We kept coming back. For high school, I went to Woodward High School on Old Georgetown Road. As my high school years were ending and my father got transferred again to Chicago, I decided to stay and went to the University of Maryland.

Were you tired of moving?
I was. I went to eight different schools between elementary and high school. That’s a lot for anybody. But it does one thing: It makes you outgoing. You don’t have a choice.

Where do you see yourself in the next 10 years?
Ten years is so far out. In this industry you’re lucky if you can forecast a year or two years out. One of the folks here asked me about an exit strategy. I said, “What exit strategy? I’ll probably die at my desk.” I love what I do. I’ve been told that it may not always be that way. For now I can’t foresee doing anything else. I have friends who have sold their companies and have retired. I can’t imagine doing anything other than what I’m doing. I’ve already traveled a lot, I play golf terribly. There are no other passions that I want to do. This is my passion.