Alia Kemet is getting McCormick & Co. to spice up its marketing—and save money—by creating more content internally.

An internal team of 55, and growing, is now responsible for about 80% of McCormick’s content. The team ramped up its capabilities during COVID-19 and acts more like an internal creative agency led by Kemet, a mother of four who previously spent 14 years at Ikea.

During the past year, Kemet says she learned to pay more attention to the lives of the people around her, which made the work better. Plus, McCormick avoided spending a record $13.5 million on marketing in 2020 by funneling more work through the internal team, such as launching a French’s mustard beer and hosting live online cooking tutorials.

“It was a difficult year," says Kemet, "but you can find so much creativity and innovation when things are hard and you have to move fast, and I personally work well in ambiguity."

See all of Ad Age's 2021 Leading Women U.S. and Europe here.

What advice would you give your younger self?

Embrace the fact that you aren’t like everyone else. Your difference fuels your innovative thinking and creativity. Most of the winning ideas you will have will get dismissed the first time but tenacity and the ability to influence others will get you far. Never give up.

What’s the biggest risk you’ve ever taken?

I made the decision early on that I was going to have a big family and I was going to have a big career. I think it was the best decision for me personally, and I’m really happy because of it.

If you weren’t doing your current job what would you be doing and why?

I would go into learning and development, leadership in particular. I want to encourage leadership to build strong teams across organizations.

What should the industry do to encourage more women and people of color into its ranks?

Believing that people of color are excellent for the job, just believing that and hiring them. People are always looking for people of color who are doing really great things and they want to hire them. They want to hire the people who already made it. Hire people who are coming up the ranks. Successful people of color are not unicorns, there are many of us out there.

Which campaign or other piece of work have you seen in the last year that you wish you had done?

Beats by Dre’s “You Love Me.” I had visible chills. I cried. I loved it. I loved that they used Naomi Osaka. It shows how clearly in tune they were to what was going on in the world. Also, the Hennessey ad (“Dear Destiny”) about the Tulsa massacre was really well done for the moment of time that we’re in. (Kemet’s grandfather was a survivor of the 1921 Tulsa massacre.)

See all of Ad Age's 2021 Leading Women U.S. and Europe here.