Direct Marketing Giant Lester Wunderman Passes Away

In 1967, Lester Wunderman, the legendary founder of his namesake direct marketing agency, coined the term “Direct Marketing”. In so doing, and through his visionary leadership, what had previously been known as direct mail marketing matured into a leading marketing discipline and changed the way we look at marketing today.

At the age of 98, Lester Wunderman passed away on January 9th. The flags in front of every post office in the world should be at half mast.

Here is the official press release from the company he founded and a great article from AdWeek.

We have long been disciples of Mr. Wunderman’s vision and thinking. Our own Art Graddon had the pleasure of meeting him way back when at Wunderman’s Montreal office and has never forgotten the experience.

Here is one of our favourite pieces of wisdom from Lester Wunderman titled 19 Things Successful Direct Marketers Know”. It can be found in his fantastic book about his life and career, “Being Direct: Making Advertising Pay”.

Thank you, Lester Wunderman, for your inspiration.