The First 50

In many cities, an association leads to the founding of a conference. In Chicago, it was the other way around. A group of area direct marketers organized the Windy City's first Direct Mail Day in 1954. The next year, spurred by that event's success, the Mail Advertising Club of Chicago — later renamed the Chicago Association of Direct Marketing — was born. As the group prepared to begin its 50th anniversary celebrations, Direct chatted with past and present CADM officers about the 1,400-plus-member association's history and its future.

In the Beginning

BOB ENLOW (co-founder, president, 1958-59): I was one of the [marketers] who started the organization. Charles Downs, who was the ad director at that time of Abbott Laboratories, was the key man. The year prior to the founding of the organization, the Direct Marketing Association had their Direct Marketing Day in Chicago. Of course, in the early '50s [the DMA] only had two-and-a-half employees, so when they came to a town for a national meeting everything had to be done by a local group. I handled the program for that meeting at the Edgewater Beach Hotel. The point is, we put on the convention, we did all the work, sold the booth space and the luncheon tickets. And then they took all the money back to New York. That made all our committees kind of angry. So Charlie got enough of us together and said look, let's put on our own direct marketing day. We'll have a one-day event in Chicago and keep the money raised. And that's how we got started.

Changing Times

ENLOW: Only two of the original [members] are still living, CADM's second president Bob Stone and me. The [founders] included Alta Caldwell of Caldwell Letter Service. It was unusual at that time for women to be involved. In the DMA they weren't given any responsibility, and that was true in the local advertising groups [as well]. Women had the Women's Ad Club of Chicago. But we decided they should be a part of our organization. We were unique in that we had women starting out as actual full members with full participation.

SUSAN KRYL (president, 1980-81): I was the second woman president. In the first 25 years there were two women presidents, Florence Wolf and me. In the second 25 years, there have been nine woman presidents. The direct marketing business has always been a fertile ground for women. I think it's interesting that the leadership of CADM has demonstrated that fact. Women have always been active in the business, and now we've seen them rise to senior positions and take leadership roles.

MICHELLE BLECHMAN (current CADM vice president): In one way or another I've been involved with CADM for about 20 years. I think [one difference] now is a lot of people are coming into the industry on purpose. It used to be that you fell into direct marketing by accident. Now people are entering the industry who actually have an education in direct marketing, who had a much more structured approach to learning, in large part thanks to CADM and other trade associations that have made the effort to educate people.

Time to Learn

ENLOW: [In the 1950s], universities' marketing departments wouldn't even mention direct mail. It's hard to think of that today, but direct mail and that form of advertising was considered something that wasn't important to college programs in business management and marketing. I got the idea to try to get one of the universities in Chicago interested in accepting us into some kind of lecture program. At that time I was president of the Chicago Advertising Federation. I had the influence then that I went to Roosevelt University and talked to the director of its marketing program [and offered a] free lecture service, [featuring] men and women in the direct mail business who would come in for their evening educational program for students working on MBAs.

MICHAEL COLUCCI (president, CADM Educational Foundation): CADM and the educational foundation are two separate entities and sometimes people don't recognize that. The educational foundation was created years ago as a place to put CADM's surplus dollars and give them back to the community. Our vision is that we want to use the funds raised here in the Midwest. Currently, we work with DePaul University and are a sponsor for its direct and interactive program. We also support an e-marketing scholarship at Ferris State. Out at Northern Illinois we have several programs, including the Dick Benson scholarship, a one-day institute on direct marketing, and the Acxiom professorship. And we have the Okner Collegiate Institute, which is sponsored by Sy Okner.

Putting on a Show

ENLOW: At that very first Chicago Mail Ad Club DM Day the luncheon speaker was a local direct marketing man. At the same time, at the Edgewater Hotel, a group of women were having an educational program for their organization. Somehow, a lot of them got into our luncheon. They enjoyed the lunch, but when the program started and the guy began talking about direct mail, they all got up and left (Laughs). Of course, the poor speaker couldn't understand why everyone was walking out on his speech.

JIM KOBS (president, 1972-73): We had always had a history of having as a luncheon speaker either someone like the postmaster general or someone from the Senate postal committee. When I was promotion chairman in 1968, we broke the mold for the first time and had Bob Newhart as our luncheon speaker, and promoted it as a ‘speechless luncheon,’ just entertainment. That's continued through the years with various celebrities from Mike Ditka to Henny Youngman to author Scott Turow.

MITCHELL LIEBER (president, 2000-01): Al Franken was a stitch in 2003. I was receiving the Downs Award and my 4-year-old daughter was there. It had been a busy day for me, and I hadn't had a chance to tell her that there was a story in my speech I was going to cut short because of time. I didn't tell the first part, which was her favorite, and she started crying. I'm into the next paragraph and I said, ‘OK, a lot of you can hear this crying. It's my daughter Hannah. She wants to hear the first part of the story I told you. I told it and she quieted down and I went on with my speech. [Later,] whenever Al Franken told an off-color joke, he said ‘Y'know, I wasn't going to say that, but Hannah insisted.’

KOBS: For a number of years, to try to get publicity for Direct Marketing Day, we came up with the idea of recognizing the Mail Man of the Year as a public-interest thing. People would send in recommendations for their mailman. One year we choose a letter from an older person in a bad neighborhood where Social Security checks were often stolen from mailboxes. [The postman's] nickname was ‘Hold 'Em’ because when the Social Security checks came in he would hold them until [the recipient] came to the door to pick them up.

Pitching In

JEANNE GARRETT (president, 1994-95): When I was president it wasn't difficult to find people to run programs. I don't hear anyone say they can't find people to give of their time and talent and get involved. I don't know how you capture that feeling of just jumping in and getting things done, but CADM has always had that. Whether it's just the camaraderie or just that you're doing good for the profession, it does mean something to give back to the people who are just starting.

KRYL: We've always had so many people who are willing to volunteer. It's a compliment to the companies because they're allowing their people to be away and contribute to the industry.

JOE DECOSMO (current CADM treasurer): There has been a continual high level of service that the association gives to its members. We make it easy for people to volunteer, which is really important to me. It was harder in the past to find opportunities and get on a committee. Now everyone is encouraged to get involved. We have lots of different ways to reach out and [get people] to raise their hands.

The Next 50

GARRETT: I was president during the 40th anniversary. I think the challenge today is to take the universe of people involved in marketing and put them together under the umbrella of direct marketing. The association is struggling to stay relevant to the new worker. [We need] to acquire members from all these different organizations that are using [DM tactics] but really don't think of it as direct marketing.

KELLY ABELES (current CADM president): It's been a really good year. A lot of exciting things have been happening. There's been great attendance at our programs. It's really exciting, because we're moving into the 50th anniversary of DM Days and the association, and we've got a really strong board. We're looking at some long-range planning that's really exciting. There's a lot of new faces at our meetings. And we had a new special interest group start up last year, the Chicago Broadcast Direct SIG, which was great, because it brought in a different group of people.

NEYSA BENNETT (director, CADM special interest groups): As a member of CADM, there are things you want to continue to learn about. Some things might be in your particular niche, some might be in other areas. So special interest groups were born to be able to bring in people who either come from that discipline or were interested in learning about it. A recent Broadcast SIG event on Hispanic marketing was opened up to the entire membership, and we had 100 or more people at the lunch. There was such a buzz. One thing led to another and all of a sudden we had a new Hispanic Marketing SIG, [led by] Gustavo Gruber of Banta Direct Marketing Group.

LIEBER: CADM continues to be successful because it changes with our industry. CADM was probably the first DM association to do programs by teleconference. It embraced the Web early on, and it continues to change. I don't think any organization can [go on] for 50 years without adapting to the time. You get out of the association what you put into it. You can just be a member and benefit from the events. But those who get involved end up getting to know other leaders better and more intimately and as a result have better, broader and stronger networks.

Through the Years

1954	First Chicago Direct Mail Day held.
1955	Mail Advertising Club of Chicago (MAC) formed. Charles S. Downs named first president.
1958	Basic Education course in DM debuts.
1973	MAC renamed Chicago Association of Direct Marketing (CADM).
1973	Florence R. Wolf named CADM's first female president.
1980	Charles S. Downs Chicago DMer of the Year Award established.
1985	Association holds first Tempo Awards ceremony.
1985	CADM Educational Foundation formed to support formal DM academic programs.
1993	First Natalie P. Holmes Volunteer of the Year Award presented.
1997	Direct From the Heart created to encourage members' pro bono efforts.
2000	Jay Gondelman Award honoring interactive creative introduced.
2001	George Buckley named first full-time executive director. First association office established.
2001	Pat Wheelless Mentoring Award debuts.
2004	50th anniversary of Chicago DM Days and Expo to be celebrated at Navy Pier April 21-22.

Into the Future

DM Days Begins a Busy Year for CADM

CADM's Direct Marketing Days and Expo — set for April 21-22 at Chicago's Navy Pier — kicks off a year of education, networking and golden anniversary celebrations for the association.

Mike Becker, chairman of the conference, notes that this year's DM Days will feature three keynote speakers. On Wednesday, April 21, U.S. Postmaster General Jack Potter and George Wiedemann of iDine will lead general sessions. The next day, comedian, writer and “Saturday Night Live” alumnus Tim Kazurinsky will entertain at a luncheon.

Chicagoan Kazurinsky's viewpoint will be particularly interesting to the audience, as his career started in an advertising agency. His boss wanted him to improve his presentation skills, so he sent Kazurinsky to take a class at Second City. John Belushi caught his act and he was soon writing for “SNL.”

“His story comes out of our world, so we're excited about that,” said Becker.

Exhibitors will include HP, which will offer a digital printing booth. This is the show's third year at Navy Pier. “People love the pier. It's a great venue,” he said. “In the spring, if the weather's nice it competes with the exhibit hall.”

CADM's Tempo Awards honoring marketing and creative will be presented the evening of April 21. The conference will conclude with a new track of sessions presented by the University of Chicago's DM department. Speakers will include Jim Kobs, Barbara Weaver and Jennifer Wrigley.

Yvonne Furth, chairwoman of Direct from the Heart — CADM's effort to promote members' pro bono activities — notes that on May 15, the 2004 DFTH Annual Educational Seminar will be held at the Museum of Contemporary Art. The goal of the day is to provide nonprofits with information to improve their DM programs. Direct From the Heart currently works with Chicago Scholars, Youth Job Center of Evanston and the Center for Enriched Living on their DM initiatives.

Holly Harle and Don Harle are co-chairpersons of the association's 50th anniversary committee. The duo holds the distinction of being the first father and daughter to have each served terms as president of CADM (Holly from 2002-03 and Don from 1985-86).

“We'd like to make it a celebration of direct marketing's role in Chicago's economy and of the Chicago DM community's leadership role in national direct marketing efforts,” says Don Harle.

“Chicago is kind of the birthplace of direct marketing, with Montgomery Ward and Sears, and we consider this the home of DM,” adds Holly Harle. “We want to focus not only on the association's activities but on some of the members who have been around for 80, 100 years and how they have used DM to build their companies and Chicago business in general.”
— Beth Negus Viveiros