Rory Sutherland is the Vice Chairman of Ogilvy, an attractively vague job title that has allowed him to co-find a behavioural science practice within the agency. He works with psychology graduates to look for “unseen opportunities” in consumer behaviour – in other words, small contextual changes that can have enormous effects on the decisions people make.
Before becoming Vice Chairman, he joined the team as a graduate trainee planner in 1988, having been inspired to join the advertising industry by the British television advertising of the 1980s. He briefly worked in account management before switching to copywriting and became their Creative Director in 2001. He has worked on their American Express and Dove Soap accounts.
Outside of Ogilvy, he worked as President of the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising between 2008 and 2012. He is also the founder of Nudgestock, a global festival promoting behavioural science and ideas.
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Rory Sutherland | Writer
Rory published his first book, The Wiki Man, in 2011. It acts as an introduction to his thoughts and ideas, giving readers an insight into his unique character and personality.
This was followed up in 2019 with Alchemy: The Magic of Original Thinking in a World of Mind-Numbing Conformity, in which he argues that great marketing ideas are often built around profoundly irrational cores.
In 2021, he released Transport For Humans: Are We Nearly There Yet, a look at how best to design transport for humans, improving the design of roads, railways, planes, and pavements, and how we use them.
He is also a regular columnist for The Spectator magazine.
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Rory Sutherland | TED Talks
Rory has given three TED talks to date, all of which have gained millions of views:
Life Lessons From an Ad Man (2009): Rory makes the daring assertion that a change in perceived value can be just as satisfying as what we consider “real” value. This TED talk has been viewed 3.7 million times.
Sweat the Small Stuff (2010): Rory says that many flashy, expensive fixes to problems are just obscuring better, simpler answers. This TED talk has been viewed over 1.5 million times.
Perspective is Everything (2011): The circumstances of our lives may matter less than how we see them. Rory makes a compelling case for how reframing is the key to happiness. This TED talk has been reviewed over 4 million times.
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Rory Sutherland | Social Media
Perhaps surprisingly, Rory has become a hit on social media (boasting over 635,000 followers), particularly on TikTok. An account was set up by a filmmaker fan of Rory who cut clips of his interviews and talks and uploaded them to the platform. His TikTok success lies “in the everyday insights into how human behaviour is manipulated by cunning marketing tricks”. From social media to podcasts to conference stages and magazine columns, Rory shares his passion for behaviour, psychology, and thinking differently with his colleagues, clients, and the wider world. He looks at the successes and failures in the world of advertising, analyses what branding actually means, looks at what creativity is, and the value of persuasion over compulsion.
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Rory Sutherland | Speaking Topics
– Consumer Behaviour and Trends
– Psychology of Selling
– Behavioural Economics
– Digital Trends
– Fintech
– Innovation and Creativity
– Digital Marketing and Advertising
– New Ways of Branding
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To check fees and availability for Rory Sutherland, contact Great Business Speakers on 0044 (0)1753 439289
