Rory Sutherland

Originally  described as the worst graduate trainee that Ogilvy & Mather had ever hired, Rory Sutherland steadily rose through the ranks to become Vice Chairman of Ogilvy Group, Executive Creative Director of OgilvyOne London and one of the most followed men in marketing.

With his working life bridging an advertising revolution, Rory believes it is now time for business to reconsider the attention it pays to new insights in psychology in the development and promotion of new products and services. In particular, he believes that the two sources of assumptions about consumer behaviour – market research and microeconomics – are often woefully misleading, and need to be considered in the light of newly abundant behavioural data and new findings in behavioural economics.

He has served as the President of the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) – the first ‘creative’ to do so. A champion of behavioural economics and an early adopter of new technologies, Rory is also known for his humorous take on the bizarre and sometimes wonderful world of advertising and what makes it tick.

A classicist originally, in 2012, Rory received an Honorary Fellowship award from the Institute of Direct and Digital Marketing (IDM) for his outstanding contribution to the direct and digital marketing profession; he has also been awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Brunel University. He continues to provide insight into advertising in the age of the Internet and social media through his blog at Campaign’s Brand Republic site, his column “The Wiki Man” at The Spectator and his busy Twitter account.