THOMAS L. COLLINS, "the Makeover Maven of Direct" began his advertising career as a copywriter for the leading mail-order advertising agency of the time, and over the years rose to become Vice President and Creative Director of Wunderman Advertising, the first full-service direct marketing agency.

In 1965 he and Stan Rapp formed Rapp & Collins, their own direct-marketing agency
It was acquired ten years later by what became Omnicom and served as the original building block for what today is Omnicoms $2 billion network of direct-marketing advertising agencies around the world, Rapp Collins Worldwide. It has more than 2,000 professionals in 70 offices in 38 countries

After 20 years at Rapp & Collins as Creative Director and Plans Board Chairman, Collins left the firm to devote himself to speaking, writing, and consulting. In an overview page on the Internet, the Rapp Collins agency has said, "Mr. Rapp and Mr. Collins remain the cornerstone of the way we do business. and their stature as consultants and influences in the industry makes us proud." For five years Collins wrote a column on direct-marketing advertising copy principles for Direct Marketing magazine. He was featured on the front cover of the magazine and in an inside cover story as a great American copywriter.

Beginning with their trail-blazing book, MaxiMarketing, Collins and his long-time business partner Stan Rapp co-authored four best-selling books on marketing which were translated into a dozen languages and and in all editions sold an estimated 300,000 copies worldwide.

Ten years ago, Collins began his widely acclaimed monthly column in Direct Magazine, "The Makeover Maven."  Although Direct Magazine ceased print publication in 2009, many of this columns can be found on their online site.