Who's Who: AnaLiza Alba
Entrepreneur AnaLiza Alba works as an Executive Creative Director at Carousel NYC. Besides that, she is a mother, a wife, and a Texan. A 16-year veteran in the advertising business, Alba’s portfolio includes creative and digital work for award-winning brands like L’Oreal Paris, Nexxus Haircare, Johnson & Johnson, Hershey’s, and Pepsi. Recently, she led the branding for dntl, NYC’s first walk-in dental bar, which was a recent win for Carousel. Most recently, she was also pivotal in creatively leading and winning the pitch for Fortune 500 company, XPO Logistics.
She is also responsible for a blog, which had over 1.1 million visitors in 2018. Her Instagram page currently has approximately 10k engaged followers.
1. How did you get into advertising?
I was originally a journalism & business student at UT Austin but found that the work the ad students were doing was more interesting and inspiring to me at the time. After I got my Masters and put my portfolio together, I received an internship through the MAIP Program (Multicultural Advertising Internship Program) in NYC and never left the city.
2. The most recent personal/passion project you are/were working on?
Definitely my skincare brand. Having worked in the beauty industry for so long, I knew I wanted to create something meaningful that truly used only ingredients women needed. And after becoming pregnant with my first child, I knew there was an opportunity for a safe skincare brand targeted to pregnant women.
3. The next big thing in advertising is going to be?
More experiential content like AI and VR... experiences that really give people a more tactical taste of the brand so they can feel it for themselves. People no longer want to be told how they’re going to feel. They want to be a part of things, deeply immersed in them and they want to be able to share those experiences with others.
4. The piece of advertising work you wish you had thought of is …
This is a tough one as I have a few but one of them is the JetBlue “FlyBabies” stunt where they gave a 25% discount to all passengers every time a baby cried. It was insightful, brilliant, and truly helped a brand solve a travel woe while turning a negative into a positive. Of the more famously known, I’d say the “It’s all in the Tide Ads” Super Bowl play. Brilliant use of the medium and making your ad stretch further than you thought possible.
5. The internet/digital tool you couldn’t live without is?
TV on iPhone because I can download my shows/movies and watch them on the train to work and home. With a 3-year-old, I don’t get much TV at home but being in this industry, I know doing this is vital to my career for inspiration, culture etc.
6. In a film about your life, you’d likely be played by?
Ha, can you imagine?! A girl can only dream to have a film made about her life. Ask my daughter. She’d probably give you some fun answers here.
7. Words or phrase you overuse?
“Continuity is for sissies” and I have to admit I stole it from one of my favorite Creative Directors. She always wanted to push us to just worry about the work and stay high level. The minute you start getting in the weeds, you’re not focused on the bigger idea.
8. Your last social media update said?
It was a video of my daughter making a pretend call to 911 and Disney… “Hello firefighter come now ok...hello ticketman, I need 3 tickets to Disney.”
9. Your dream collaboration is?
At Carousel, we have a lot of beauty and fashion clients and one director I’ve always dreamed of working with is Sofia Coppola. She just gets women. Her work effortlessly captures the subtle nuances that make women unique, feminine and beautiful.
10. The last piece of music you listened to was?
I’m in a Childish Gambino phase right now because I saw him perform at MSG recently and found a whole newfound respect for him and his incredibly diverse talent.
