Drayton Bird

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Drayton Bird is a man with over 40 years experience in direct marketing and advertising. He began his career as a journalist and copywriter and went on to be a co-founder of Trenear-Harvey, Bird & Watson, a specialist Direct Marketing Agency in 1977. By 1984 this had become the largest and most well-known direct agency in the UK and with the local O & M Direct agency (a subsidiary of Ogilvy & Mather), not performing well in this market, there was little surprise when THB&W was acquired by O & M and he became Vice-Chairman and Creative Director of O & M Direct worldwide.

To promote his business at THB&W, in 1982 Drayton wrote, published and printed Commonsense Direct Marketing. The rights to this were later acquired by an independent publisher and the book has gone on to be reprinted 5 times and has become a standard work of reference used by students and quoted by speakers around the world.

In November 2003 the Chartered Institute of Marketing named Drayton Bird one of 50 living individuals who have shaped today’s marketing, other names included Kotler, Peters and Levitt.

Advertising legend the late David Ogilvy said he “knows more about direct marketing than anyone in the world. His book about it is pure gold. His speeches are not only informative, but hilariously funny.”

Campaign magazine named him one of the 50 most important individuals in UK advertising during the previous 25 years – "the only universally acknowledged point of creativity in the direct marketing world”. UK magazine Direct Response said his impact on UK direct marketing was “unlikely to be matched by any other individual"

In December 2003, most of the readers of Precision Marketing voted him leading direct marketing personality in the last 15 years.

He has written over 1,000 columns for magazines in Europe, Australia, India, the UK and Malaysia and a compilation of his articles, Marketing Insights and Outrages.

He has worked with many of the world’s leading brands, including American Express, British Airways, Deutsche Post, Ford, Microsoft, Nestlé, Procter & Gamble, Philips, The Royal Mail, Unilever and Visa. He has also worked with major advertising agency groups, including Y & R, JWT, FCB and Leo Burnett.

Business schools, universities and management consultants he has worked with include Columbia University Business School, New York, INSEAD, The London Business School, ESIC (Madrid), IPADE (Mexico City), IPADE (Lima), Cap Gemini, McKinsey and A. T. Kearney.

[edit] About Drayton Bird's present activities

He now runs Drayton Bird Associates [1], who work with many firms on direct marketing and other marketing matters. He has interests in five other firms in the UK and Asia.

In 2008 he launched EADIM - The European Academy od DIrect and Interactive Marketing[2], a joint venture with FEDMA, the Federation of Direct and Interactive Marketing and the Direct Marketing Associations of 12 European countries. The first "European Certificate in Direct and Interactive Marketing" starts in September 2008. The one year course leads to a qualification recognised throughout Europe.