David Ferris Bio
Advertising copywriter? Direct Marketing guru? Software developer? Photographer? A lifetime of thinking outside of the box makes David hard to categorize in the concrete. In the abstract, "pioneer" works best.
A pioneer in the field of communicating with purpose, he has hailed from some of the biggest names in advertising in New York City - BBDO, Dancer Fitzgerald Sample, Specht Gilbert and Partners, DDB Group Two and Marsteller. His career took him into the realm of Direct Marketing early on with stints at Chapman Direct Marketing and Scali, McCabe Sloves Direct.
Then swept up in the tidal wave of integrated marketing in the late eighties, as well as the livability and accessibility of Chicago, David served in the role of a pioneering specialist in integrated communications for Chicago's biggest three advertising agencies. At Leo Burnett, he rose to the title of Associate Creative Director while amassing an enviable list of top honors, including powering Oldsmobile to a Gold Caples, United Airlines to a Promo Best of Show and bringing home the coveted Silver Bell for Distinguished Service from the Ad Council. In his two years as an Associate Creative Director at DDB Chicago, David built the direct marketing component of the office's integrated group from scratch into the fifth largest in the city on the strength of work that won Gold for Ameritech Small Business Services from the Chicago Association of Direct Marketing.
David rose to the title of Senior Partner, Group Creative Director at J. Walter Thompson Chicago, a title he held for more than five years, based on a "can do" spirit that energized new business pitches and broadened the agency's offerings to include integrated sales promotion and direct marketing.
Most notably at JWT, however, David pioneered interactive marketing, including website design and production, as well as online advertising, sales promotion and relationship marketing for the office. His team's efforts were rewarded, consistently, during his tenure by the likes of a Gold WorldMedal from the New York Festivals for www.oscarmayer.com, Best in Category at the London Festivals for www.helenecurtis.com, multiple Web Marketing Awards for websites and, in 2003, an award for banner advertising for the U.S. Marine Corps. In fact, under his leadership, JWT Chicago's record for accolades bested all other offices of J. Walter Thompson as well as those of every one of its sister companies in the WPP network worldwide.
Now serving in various consulting roles, David is Founder/CEO of Ironwheel Works, Inc. -- a company he created to market PenJammer® which is a PDA software program he invented that earned a four-star review from PC Magazine. He is a practicing portrait photographer and plays guitar. His lifelong passion for creating communications with purpose unabated, he is CEO of Ferris&Caliber, a communications consultancy, as well as a key contributor to Why8 Marketing and Kryl & Company.
David lives in the Andersonville neighborhood of Chicago. He is a cum laude graduate of The University of Massachusetts, Amherst and recently earned a M.A. in Education Technology Leadership with George Washington University in Washington, D.C.