Rory Sutherland

Rory helped found OgilvyOne, a dedicated digital and direct agency, and he remains an advocate of so-called ‘360 Degree Branding’ ensuring brands have a coherent, joined-up presence in all relevant media areas. Rory was appointed Head of Copy, and shortly afterwards Creative Director of Ogilvy. He has also served as the president of the Institute of Practioners in Advertising (IPA) – the first ‘creative’ to do so. Ogilvy is now part of the massive WPP ad and media group and count Ford, Unilever, IBM, American Express, BP, and British Airways amongst their top accounts.

With characteristic wit and erudition Rory looks at the successes, the failures and the outright bizarre from the ad world. He analyses what branding means, what creativity is, and the value of persuasion over compulsion. He considers how the potato was rebranded by Friedrich the Great of Prussia, the mysteries behind advertising, why the media is like food and why cheap, imaginative answers can often be better than expensive ones.

A prolific TED Speaker, with titles such as ‘Life Lessons from an Ad Man’ and ‘Sweat the Small Stuff’ to his name, Rory’s expertise in topics such as behavioural economics is simply unrivalled, and his skill as a speaker finds audiences enthralled and entertained in equal measures.