• Ad Age, Thursday, July 29, 2010 10:44 AM

Rance Crain conducts a fascinating video interview with direct-marketing giant Lester Wunderman who, at 90, is chairman emeritus of the eponymous direct-marketing agency that's now owned by WPP's Young & Rubicam, operating 130 offices in 55 countries.

Crain's write-up of the interview leads with the observation that Wunderman has installed shoji screens on the windows in his New York office to help him achieve an "in-look" as opposed to an "out-look." Among those in-looks is that "personal advertising" -- which uses data and other information to understand the habits and needs and composition of families -- is overtaking, but not totally displacing, mass communication.

"We're not just selling merchandise, we're selling service," Wunderman says. "In other words, we are trying to locate for each family that which they are most likely to be needing or wanting -- or when, particularly the when."

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