About the author

Drayton Bird is a British marketing expert and public speaker.

David Ogilvy said of him ‘Drayton Bird knows more about direct marketing than anyone in the world.’

Bird has worked with advertising agencies including Y & R, JWT, FCB and Leo Burnett, and was a founding member of the Superbrands Council. Starting as a journalist he became a copywriter, and after becoming creative director of a London advertising agency he quit to go into business on his own.

With John Watson and Glenmore Trenear-Harvey he set up what became Britain’s largest direct marketing agency, which he later sold to Ogilvy and Mather, where he became vice chairman and worldwide creative director of what is now OgilvyOne, and was elected to the Ogilvy Group board.

His book, Commonsense Direct and Digital Marketing, has been published in 17 languages and was for many years the UK’s best-seller on the subject. He has written four other marketing books, including How to write a sales letter that sells, now in its 3rd edition, and well over 1,000 columns for publications around the world. In 2007 he founded the European Academy of Direct and Interactive Marketing.