Adland's favourite behavioural scientist.
Rory Sutherland is the Vice Chairman of Ogilvy UK and one of the most quotable thinkers in modern marketing. Over more than three decades in advertising he has become its most entertaining in-house contrarian: a man whose entire argument is that humans are not the tidy, rational creatures that economics assumes, and that the businesses which truly understand this quietly run rings around the ones that do not.
The short version of a long career
Rory joined Ogilvy in 1988 as a graduate trainee, on track, by his own account, to become a fairly unremarkable account man. Then he was moved into the then-novel world of direct and digital marketing, where results could actually be measured, and he discovered something that has fascinated him ever since: the things that change human behaviour are rarely the things a spreadsheet would predict.
That obsession led him to behavioural economics, the field pioneered by the likes of Daniel Kahneman and Richard Thaler. He went on to co-found Ogilvy's behavioural science practice, served as President of the IPA, and built a parallel career as a speaker, writer and teacher. His TED talks have been watched many millions of times, his Spectator column 'The Wiki Man' has run for years, he teaches his own 'Mad Masters' behavioural science masterclass, and his 2019 book Alchemy: The Surprising Power of Ideas That Don't Make Sense became an international bestseller.
Most recently, and entirely by accident, he has become a social media phenomenon. Fans began chopping his talks and podcast appearances into short clips and posting them to TikTok and Instagram, where his quick, funny, counter-intuitive takes on human behaviour found an enormous new audience. The result is one of advertising's great surprises: a 50-something Ogilvy executive who has somehow become a must-follow for Gen Z founders, marketers and the merely curious.
What he actually does
Vice Chairman of Ogilvy UK
He joined Ogilvy in 1988 as a graduate trainee and never left, going on to co-found Ogilvy's behavioural science practice, Ogilvy Consulting. He is also a former President of the IPA, the UK's advertising industry body.
Author of Alchemy
His 2019 bestseller argues that the logical answer and the right answer are frequently not the same, and that the gap between the two is exactly where the value, and the magic, tends to hide.
TED talk sensation
His talks, including 'Life lessons from an ad man' and 'Perspective is everything', have been viewed many millions of times and remain some of the most shared talks on behaviour and persuasion.
Spectator columnist
For years he has written 'The Wiki Man', turning the same psychological lens on everything from train timetables and speed limits to flat whites and the true cost of bureaucracy.
Co-creator at 42courses
He helped build the Behavioural Economics and Applied Behavioural Science courses, turning the ideas behind these quotes into something you can actually sit down and practise.
An accidental TikTok star
Clips of his talks, originally cut up and posted by fans, have racked up huge followings on TikTok and Instagram, turning a 50-something ad executive into an unlikely favourite of Gen Z founders and marketers.
What sets him apart
Plenty of people can tell you what works. Rory is more interested in the awkward cases where what works makes no sense at all, and what makes perfect sense does not work. That is the territory most experts avoid, and it is precisely where he likes to set up camp.
- An advertising man who reads more economics papers than most economists.
- Believes the most valuable engineering is often psychological, not physical.
- Thinks the opposite of a good idea can also be a good idea.
- Suspects that a lot of expensive problems have cheap, slightly daft solutions nobody will test.