Sid Liebenson had been named the Chicago Association of Direct Marketing’s 2008 Charles S. Downs Direct Marketer of the Year. The award was presented Tuesday during CADM’s IMX08 conference.
Liebenson is executive vice president, director of marketing at Draftfcb. He has been in direct marketing since 1974, and with Draft in all its various incarnations (Draftfcb, Draft Direct, Kobs & Draft, all the way back to Kobs & Brady) for 30 years.
A Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism alumni, he received his undergraduate degree in 1973 and his graduate degree in 1974. While in grad school, he worked part time writing direct response copy for mailers and statement stuffers for a small suburban agency.
Upon graduation he interviewed at Marsteller Advertising and found that his DR stint caught their eye. This led to a position at their then recent New York acquisition Schwab/Beatty. There, he worked on mostly print campaigns, a little broadcast and some back end collateral materials as an account manager, writing some copy as well.
“My advisor at Northwestern said it was a shame I wasn’t in packaged goods and I should get out,” remembered Liebenson. “Many of my grad school friends felt sorry for me because I wasn’t at a big name agency. And I certainly wasn’t making the starting salary some of the others were making.”
While working at Schwab/Beatty was a great learning experience, it was not without its challenges, he said. “It was one of the earlier DR agencies to get acquired by a general agency, and they made every mistake in the book when it came to integrating the two businesses. It became a tough environment for the people on the direct accounts."
By 1977, Liebenson wanted to move on to the general world and interviewed with no luck at several agencies, due to the then-prevailing attitude of direct being a lesser sibling to its general kin. Finally, during an interview one prospective employer turned to him and said “Stop. What are you doing this for? From what you’re telling me, you like direct response, you’re good at direct response. There are 50 guys on the street who can sell soap as good as the next one, but hardly anybody knows direct response. You’re just not happy where you’re working. Do yourself a favor. Apply to direct agencies and see what happens. If you don’t like it, come back.”
He took that advice to heart, applied to direct agencies whose work he respected and immediately got several responses—and a job at his first choice, Chicago's Stone & Adler.
“I was there for a year. I went from a creative dominated agency to a marketing dominated agency,” says Liebenson. “For an accounts guy, this was like seeing the sun rise. It seemed like everything that was new and exciting was going on at Stone and Adler at that time.”
The pace was fast, and Liebenson says he “never worked harder and never loved a job more.” He worked directly for Jim Kobs on a number of accounts, and when Kobs left Stone & Adler to start Kobs & Brady, Liebenson went with him.
"I feel like I've lived through the modern history of direct marketing in my 30 years at the agency," he said. "From traditional direct channel marketing, we added and integrated promotional marketing at Draft, and now at Draftfcb we're at the forefront of fully integrated marketing communications. We're still breaking new ground."
Liebenson has been involved with CADM since the late 1970s, initially joining to help network and promote his then new agency. His involvement ramped up significantly in 1990 when he joined the committee to organize Chicago DM Days. “I then realized how truly dedicated and smart the people working in CADM were,” he said.
He later joined the CADM board, and in 1995-96, served as the association’s president.
