Lester Wunderman (June 22, 1920 – January 9, 2019) was an American advertising executive widely considered the creator of modern-day
direct marketing
Direct marketing is a form of communicating an offer, where organizations communicate directly to a Target market, pre-selected customer and supply a method for a direct response. Among practitioners, it is also known as ''direct response ...
. His innovations included the magazine subscription card, the
toll-free
A toll-free telephone number or freephone number is a telephone number that is billed for all arriving calls. For the calling party, a call to a toll-free number is free of charge, unless air-charges apply for mobile telephone service. A toll-free ...
1-800 number, loyalty rewards programs, and many more. He identified, named, and defined the term "direct marketing" in a 1967 speech at
MIT
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...
, and was inducted into the
Advertising Hall of Fame The Advertising Hall of Fame, operated by the American Advertising Federation (AAF), began in 1948 as a result of a proposal by the New York Ad Club and its president, Andrew Haire, to the Advertising Federation of America, the predecessor organiza ...
in 1998.
Biography
Wunderman was born on June 22, 1920, in the
Bronx
The Bronx ( ) is the northernmost of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It shares a land border with Westchester County, New York, West ...
,
the son of Dorothy (Horowitz) and Harry Wunderman, and was educated at
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
public schools. Both his parents were
Jewish
Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...
immigrants: his father from
Austria
Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...
and his mother from
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...
.
He attended classes at each of New York City’s colleges and universities so he could create his own “degree.” He never held a formal college degree.
In 1947, he was hired as a copywriter at Maxwell Sackheim & Co. While there, he noted that their "mail order" accounts had the potential to be built into a broader line of business. He introduced a "direct marketing" approach to service them, using the medium of clients’ mailboxes as a way to develop a more personal connection with potential customers than general advertising had previously found possible.
To expand the direct marketing approach, Wunderman and his brother Irving, along with two colleagues, Ed Ricotta and Harry Kline, met on August 20, 1958, in Wunderman's "office" – a $30-a-night room at the Hotel Winslow in New York City – and with combined assets of $60,000 founded their own agency,
Wunderman, Ricotta & Kline. In 1958, the firm opened its doors in New York City with a staff of seven. There were no clients. Nevertheless, WR&K attracted more than $2 million in billings during its first year. WR&K (later acquired by
Young & Rubicam
VMLY&R was an American marketing and Marketing communications, communications company specializing in advertising, Digital media, digital and social media, sales promotion, direct marketing and brand identity consulting, formed from the 2020 mer ...
and eventually called
Wunderman
Wunderman was a New York City-based global digital agency. It was part of Young & Rubicam Brands and a member of international advertising group WPP Group ().
On November 26, 2018, WPP announced it was merging Wunderman with ad agency J. Walt ...
) was responsible for developing and/or promoting the
Columbia Record Club, the 1-800 toll-free number for businesses (developed for a
Toyota
is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on August 28, 1937. Toyota is the List of manuf ...
campaign), the magazine subscription card, and the postal
ZIP code system. A long-time relationship with
American Express
American Express Company or Amex is an American bank holding company and multinational financial services corporation that specializes in payment card industry, payment cards. It is headquartered at 200 Vesey Street, also known as American Expr ...
also led to the first customer rewards program – a breakthrough means of keeping customers loyal to a brand that has since transformed the travel and retail industries as well.
Wunderman was elected to the Direct Marketing Hall of Fame in 1983 and the
Advertising Hall of Fame The Advertising Hall of Fame, operated by the American Advertising Federation (AAF), began in 1948 as a result of a proposal by the New York Ad Club and its president, Andrew Haire, to the Advertising Federation of America, the predecessor organiza ...
in 1998. He received an honorary doctorate from
Brooklyn College
Brooklyn College is a public university in Brooklyn in New York City, United States. It is part of the City University of New York system and enrolls nearly 14,000 students on a campus in the Midwood and Flatbush sections of Brooklyn as of fall ...
, City University of New York in 1984.
He was named one of twenty “Advertising Legends and Leaders” by
AdWeek Magazine in 1998. In the July 23, 2001, issue of Time Magazine, he along with David Ogilvy and Sergio Zyman were heralded as “Great Pitchmen Over the Years.”
Wunderman lectured at a host of schools, including
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...
,
Fordham University
Fordham University is a Private university, private Society of Jesus, Jesuit research university in New York City, United States. Established in 1841, it is named after the Fordham, Bronx, Fordham neighborhood of the Bronx in which its origina ...
,
Boston University
Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. BU was founded in 1839 by a group of Boston Methodism, Methodists with its original campus in Newbury (town), Vermont, Newbur ...
, and
M.I.T. His book ''Being Direct: Making Advertising Pay'' was published in January 1997 and republished with new material in 2004. An ebook version, which includes a new introduction from the author, was published in 2011.
An avid art collector, Wunderman donated nearly 300 works of
Dogon artifacts to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the balance of his Dogon collection to the Musée de l'Homme in Paris, France. He was an exhibited photographer for many years. He studied photography at the
New School for Social Research
The New School for Social Research (NSSR), previously known as The University in Exile and The New School University, is a graduate-level educational division of The New School in New York City, United States. NSSR enrolls more than 1,000 stud ...
and then with private instructors. Fifty of his photographs of his
Dogon art are part of the permanent collection of New York's
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...
and thirteen other museums. His work has been represented by galleries in New York and the village of Mougins, France. He,
Jacqueline Kennedy
Jacqueline Lee Kennedy Onassis ( ; July 28, 1929 – May 19, 1994) was an American writer, book editor, and socialite who served as the first lady of the United States from 1961 to 1963, as the wife of President John F. Kennedy. A popular f ...
,
Karl Katz, and
Cornell Capa helped found the
International Center of Photography
The International Center of Photography (ICP) is a photography museum and school at 84 Ludlow Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City. ICP's photographic collection, reading room, and archives are at Mana Contemporary in Jer ...
in New York. His book of photographs, named "Wunderman", has been published and distributed in 2008 by the global advertising agency that bears his name.
Beginning in 2010, a collection (of Wunderman's papers) has been housed at the Rubenstein Library at Duke University.
He also served as Chairman Emeritus of Wunderman.
Personal life
Wunderman married twice. His first wife was Liljan Darcourt Malina (divorced from
Frank Malina) with whom he had two children, Marc Wunderman and Karen Wunderman Cusworth, before divorcing.
At the time of his death, he lived in New York City with his second wife, Dr. Suzanne Cott (b. Suzanne Oksman in 1934 –- d. March 14, 2021), who had appeared as Sue Oakland in 1950s and 1960s TV game shows such as ''
What's My Line
''What's My Line?'' is a panel game show that originally ran in the United States, between 1950 and 1967, on CBS, originally in black and white and later in color, with subsequent American revivals. The game uses celebrity panelists to questi ...
''. For many years afterward, she served as director of editorials for
WCBS-TV
WCBS-TV (channel 2), branded CBS New York, is a television station in New York City, serving as the flagship of the CBS network. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division alongside Riverhead, New York–lic ...
in New York. Wunderman had three stepsons (Patrick Cott, James Cott, and Thomas Cott),
and was a congregant at the
Eldridge Street Synagogue
The Eldridge Street Synagogue is an Orthodox Jewish synagogue at 12–16 Eldridge Street in the Chinatown and Lower East Side neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. Built in 1887 for Congregation Kahal Adath Jeshurun, the synagogue ...
.
He died on January 9, 2019, at the age of 98 in New York.
Notes
References
*Wunderman, L (2004). "Being Direct: Making Advertising Pay".
External links
''Art of the Dogon: selections from the Lester Wunderman collection'' an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries (fully available online as PDF)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wunderman, Lester
1920 births
2019 deaths
Businesspeople from the Bronx
Businesspeople from New York City
American marketing people
20th-century American Jews
American people of Austrian-Jewish descent
American people of Romanian-Jewish descent
20th-century American businesspeople
21st-century American Jews