Direct marketing and database marketing pioneer a Lester
Wunderman's life will be celebrated during a memorial May 21 in New York City.
Wunderman, who died Jan. 9 at the age of 98, is credited with coining the term "direct
marketing."
He founded Wunderman, Ricotta & Kline in 1958, which became the leader in direct response, database marketing and other scientific variations of the practice that became
the foundation of the modern day performance marketing marketplace.
The agency, which eventually became known as Wunderman, has since been merged with J. Walter Thompson to become WPP's
Wunderman Thompson.
