FREELANCE 1995-
DDB
Leo Burnett
FCB
American Girl
Northern Trust
Radiowave.com
and many others

FOUR POINTS DIGITAL/
marchFIRST
1999-2000
Senior writer/direct response guru

LEO BURNETT
1991-1995
Acting Creative Director on relationship direct mail programs

DAWSON JOHNS & BLACK
1989-1991
Writer on consumer and B2B TV, print

BOZELL CHICAGO
1988-1989
Writer on consumer TV and print

SULLIVAN HIGDON & SINK
Wichita, Kansas
1984-1988
Writer on consumer and B2B advertising and collateral

Michael Gebert is an award-winning freelance copywriter based in Chicago, with two decades' experience at some of the biggest agencies on some of the best-known brands in America. Experienced in TV, print, interactive, radio and outdoor, he has been particularly successful doing high-quality online advertising and direct mail for both consumer and business-to-business clients.

CONSUMER DIRECT MAIL

At Leo Burnett, where he supervised the direct group on Hallmark and McDonald's, he co-created the award-winning, much-imitated relationship direct mail programs "The Very Best from Hallmark" (Best of Show, Chicago Tempos) and "McMoms." At Rapp Collins Chicago he created a direct mail piece for MCI which set the benchmark response rate for all of MCI's agencies that year, and he did much the same thing on U S WEST at DDB/Chicago.

CONSUMER ADVERTISING

He's worked on traditional advertising and branding for many major brands including McDonald's, Hallmark, Tropicana, Discover and others. A TV spot for an Illinois Lottery campaign was one of three that won Best of Show at the Chicago Addys and a One Show Gold, and a public-issues campaign for the Kansas Medical Society won a Silver Anvil, the top award in public relations.

INTERACTIVE

Early in the dot-com boom he joined the small firm of Four Points Digital as senior writer/direct response guru, helping it win significant business from 3Com, Unilever, Allstate and other major clients and build a name as Chicago's hottest e-commerce shop. That led to its purchase by IT consulting firm Whittman-Hart (soon to become marchFIRST, soon after to go bust in the dot-com meltdown). His Covalex work was one of only three campaigns showcased on the global marchFIRST site when it launched, and his 3Com work played a major role in helping the agency secure appointment as 3Com's interactive agency of record.

BUSINESS TO BUSINESS

Since his very first job, at a regional agency with a high proportion of B2B clients, Mike Gebert has had extensive business-to-business experience reflecting a strong capacity for understanding arcane technological and industrial subjects and translating them into human, effective advertising, direct mail and collateral. His campaign launching the Covalex e-commerce site for the chemical industry, winner of two Finalist awards at the London International Advertising Awards, shows how he has taken subjects which could hardly seem drier and made impactful advertising.

Mike Gebert is also the author of a popular reference book, "The Encyclopedia of Movie Awards," published by St. Martin's in 1996. He promoted it nationwide on numerous talk radio programs during the 1996 Oscar season. For more samples from any of these area, email [email protected] for a full portfolio on CD-ROM.