The award-winning local creative agency TBC announced Oct. 8 the transition of ownership to its CEO, Nichole Baccala Ward, and the retirement of co-founder Allan Charles.
A Baltimore native and resident, Ward is the first sole owner of the agency in its 50-year history.
Ward has been with TBC since 2002 and became the agency’s president a decade ago. She has led marketing efforts for numerous brands over the years, including Dow Jones and The Wall Street Journal, Haribo USA and Pearson Education.
In addition, she stewarded TBC’s recent appointment as the American Diabetes Association’s first-ever agency of record in that organization’s 80-year history.
“We’re taking advantage of our spirit of creativity, curiosity and resilience as we move forward,” Ward said in a statement. “We know that TBC’s future holds even greater promise built on a foundation of 50 years of excellence. Together, we’ll continue to deliver integrated solutions and inspire success for clients of all sizes.”
Prior to coming to TBC, Ward worked at The Advisory Board Company in Washington, D.C., as a senior marketing executive. She earned a bachelor of arts degree in political science and international studies from Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
In 2024, Ward was a recipient of a Baltimore Business Journal “Women Who Mean Business Award.” She was also named among the “Women to Watch” by the Baltimore Sun.
Founded in 1974 by Ed Trahan, Tom Burden and Allan Charles, TBC opened as Baltimore’s first advertising agency founded exclusively by creative professionals.
Charles also opened an affiliate TV and broadcast production company, Charles Street Films, which made TBC one of the first agencies in the nation to have an in-house production studio that shot and produced its own commercials and videos.
The agency began working with major media players such as Westinghouse Broadcasting Company and the Baltimore News-American and earned national recognition for working with the national clothing retail chain Merry-Go-Round and the Holocaust Memorial Fund.
In the early 1980s, TBC became the first agency to make a multi-year, multi-million-dollar deal with MTV. The agency’s services now include advertising, brand development and strategy, content strategy and copywriting, strategic communications, social media, public relations, media planning, buying, and analytics and digital marketing.
Other major clients over the years have included the Maryland Lottery, Miller Brewing Company, the National Aquarium, Harrah’s Casinos, the Baltimore Orioles, the Baltimore Ravens, McDonald’s, CVS Pharmacy, Visit Baltimore, the Baltimore Banner, Smart Balance, the NAACP, MinuteClinic, Micron, KT Tape, CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, University of Maryland Global Campus and University of Maryland Eastern Shore.
TBC was also one of the first agencies to work with the Ronald McDonald House.
In 2022, Charles was presented a Lifetime Achievement Award by the American Advertising Federation of Baltimore for his contributions to the advertising community.
Charles is the father of acclaimed film and TV actor Josh Charles and brother of PressBox Publisher and Founder Stan Charles. In 2019, Allan Charles and his friend Hanan Y. “Bean” Sibel co-wrote a children’s book titled “The Little Penny and the Pushke.“
For information about TBC, visit tbc.us.
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