List Leader Rubin Spells It Out

It is one of life’s little ironies that the name of 2009’s List Leader of the Year gives merge/purge professionals fits.

That would be Adrea Rubin. Not Adrienne or Arianna, and not even Andrea, even though that’s how she’s (incorrectly) listed on her birth certificate.

“Most people have songs,” Rubin told Direct Newsline. “I have a hotel. The Adria Hotel and Conference Center in Bayside, Queens.”

No, the hotel didn’t get it right, either. So what’s the genesis of her name, spelled correctly? “I guess Mom wanted me to be different, and I am,” Rubin said. “It has done well by me.”

Chances are pretty good Rubin would have done well even with a more common moniker. Bob DeLay, president of the Direct Mail Marketing Association (as the Direct Marketing Association was known then), recognized her verve almost immediately in 1974, when she started her marketing career as his assistant.

“I had great typing skills, but no shorthand,” she said. “Twenty-four hours after I was hired, [DeLay] asked me if I would be willing to travel to the various insurance companies that belonged to the direct marketing insurance council. I said sure – that sounded glamorous for someone who was just starting out.”

A year later, Names Unlimited VP Al Young saw the same spark, and hired her as a list broker. That hire almost ended her career in the list industry.

“My first sales call was horrific,” she recalled. “The salesperson I went with had a speech impediment, and I was so nervous I spent my time filling in his words. I didn’t know the list business, and I had never done a list recommendation. I came back to the office and quit.”

But management at Names Unlimited refused to accept her resignation, instead telling her to go home and think her decision over. Next morning, she arrived at her office, her mind unchanged.

“On my desk were a dozen long-stemmed roses [from the prospective client],” Rubin said. “There was a note with them reading ‘If you are half as charming as you were with me, the future is yours.’ Along with the note was an order for 1 million Playboy names.”

That order, from Diner’s Club, was soon followed by an even larger request from AARP. Rubin was on her way.

Young had a profound impact on her career. “He took a liking to me,” Rubin said. “He taught me about mailing lists. He said ‘Adrea, you always recommend small ones. Think big. Always recommend ones with large monthly hotlines. When clients come back after the names work you have more volume to go back to.”

As it turned out, Young and Rubin would only work together at Names Unlimited for three months before Young left to start Select Marketing. Rubin stayed at Names Unlimited until 1976, when the company was purchased by insurance firm Colonial Penn. Right around this time Rubin met another mentor: Dave Florence, founder of Direct Media Inc., which had been a runner-up suitor for Names Unlimited.

“I owe a debt of gratitude to Dave Florence that I can’t even put into words,” Rubin said. Florence, who had heard of Rubin through the list industry grapevine, was looking to open a New York office.

“He was wonderful to me,” she said. “I was the first woman on [Direct Media’s] board of directors. I was the first woman shareholder. It was difficult, in those days: I was a young woman in an industry I was told was wonderful for young women, but financial services [Rubin’s specialty] was male dominated.”

That relationship lasted until 1990, when Rubin’s old mentor Al Young encouraged her to break off from the company and launch her own firm, Adrea Rubin Marketing, a list brokerage company. That was followed in 1992 by Adrea Rubin Management, a list management concern.

Today Rubin is still at the helm of both companies, and one of her two stepdaughters works with her in the business. “I have no interest in leaving the industry,” Rubin said. “I can’t say there might not be a time when this doesn’t work, but I’m not there.”

What advice does she offer to up-and-comers in the list industry? “Create, nourish and cherish the relationships you make along the way. It is those relationships which will create the sales for tomorrow.”

To her contemporaries she gives words of guidance, and talking points when dealing with reluctant clients. “During a recession, marketers tend to pull back. Depending on what sector they’re in, I don’t think that’s wise. As the economy turns around, the advertisers need to be in a position to say ‘we have acquired customers.’ Messaging needs to be relevant. It needs to show how [the offering] will help them survive and thrive during tightening of credit.”

As for the biggest challenge facing the list industry, Rubin cites fly-by-night firms which are popping up on the Internet, offering names of dubious provenance. “I don’t know who [those companies] are, or where they come from,” she said, recalling a plan floated by Dave Florence about a decade ago that would have certified brokers. It’s a plan she would “probably” back now, she said – but she would hope for a grandfathering clause that would automatically qualify brokers with at least ten years’ experience.

Rubin will receive her accolades during the 2009 List Leader of the Year Awards Dinner, which will be held Monday evening, June 15, at the Battery Gardens Restaurant in New York City.