First DM agency launched in 1083BC

A prominent Egyptologist has uncovered evidence that the first direct marketing agency was launched in 1083BC, predating Lester Wunderman’s eponymous business by more than 3,000 years.
The ground-breaking discovery has been made by Egyptologist and broadcaster John Romer, who has discovered a new burial site in the cliffs on Luxor’s west coast which it is claimed will make the treasures of Tutankhamun look like a “display in Woolworths”.
While researching the site, Romer found a number of draft mailings sent to leading figures of the day written on papyrus, which carry the name Typeosfoor & Ibn (Bird & Son), although it is not yet known whether Drayton Bird is a direct descendant.
To date, the earliest known direct mail comes from the year 1000 BC, when an Egyptian landowner wrote an advertisement on a piece of papyrus offering gold for the return of a runaway slave. That papyrus was recovered in Thebes and now stands on display in the British Museum.
But the latest find is understood to have sparked a major battle between Romer and the UK DMA, which believes its rightful place is in the DMA boardroom.
One DMA insider said: “This is a massive find. Everyone thought that Lester Wunderman was the godfather of DM but now it seems this Typeosfoor chap was the real pioneer. We will be lobbying hard to get this historical document in its rightful place at DMA House.”
Until now, the first known “direct marketer” was American Aaron Montgomery Ward, who produced the first mail-order catalogue for his Montgomery Ward business in 1872.
Wunderman launched his agency in 1958, Wunderman, Ricotta & Kline but it was not until 1967 that he identified, named, and defined the term “direct marketing”.
Ten years later Glenmore Trenear-Harvey, Drayton Bird and John Watson joined forces to set up the UK’s first direct marketing agency, Trenear-Harvey, Bird & Watson. Watson and Bird are still plying their trade today, at Watson Phillips Norman and Drayton Bird Associates; Trenear-Harvey is now a British intelligence analyst who writes, broadcasts and lectures on the subjects of security, intelligence, espionage and terrorism.