Roderick Henry Sutherland (born 12 November 1965) is a British advertising executive. He is the vice chairman of the

Ogilvy & Mather Ogilvy is a New York City-based British advertising, marketing, and public relations agency. It was founded in 1850 by Edmund Mather as a London-based agency. In 1964, the firm became known as Ogilvy & Mather after merging with a New York City a ...

group of companies. Sutherland writes a fortnightly column in ''

The Spectator ''The Spectator'' is a weekly British political and cultural news magazine. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving magazine in the world. ''The Spectator'' is politically conservative, and its principal subject a ...

'' and has written several books, including ''Alchemy: The Power of Ideas That Don't Make Sense''.

Early life & education

Sutherland was born in

Llanbadoc Llanbadoc () is a village and Community (Wales), community in the Principal area of Wales, county of Monmouthshire and the preserved county of Gwent (county), Gwent in Wales. The population of the village at the United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 ...

, near

Usk Usk () is a town and community in Monmouthshire, Wales, northeast of Newport. It is located on the River Usk, which is spanned by an arched stone bridge at the western entrance to the town. Usk Castle, above the town, overlooks the ancient cr ...

Monmouthshire Monmouthshire ( ; ) is a Principal areas of Wales, county in the South East Wales, south east of Wales. It borders Powys to the north; the English counties of Herefordshire and Gloucestershire to the north and east; the Severn Estuary to the s ...

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

. He attended

Monmouth School Monmouth School was a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (Independent school (United Kingdom), independent boarding school, boarding and day school, day school) for boys in Monmouth, Wales. The school was founded in 1614 with a beques ...

, a private Haberdashers' school in Monmouthshire, and studied

classics Classics, also classical studies or Ancient Greek and Roman studies, is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, ''classics'' traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek literature, Ancient Greek and Roman literature and ...

Christ's College, Cambridge Christ's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college includes the Master, the Fellows of the College, and about 450 undergraduate and 250 graduate students. The c ...

, starting in 1984.

Career

Sutherland joined

as a graduate trainee planner in 1988, having been inspired to join the advertising industry by the British television advertising of the 1980s. He worked briefly in account management before switching to

copywriting Copywriting is the act or occupation of writing text for the purpose of advertising or other forms of marketing. Copywriting is aimed at selling products or services. The product, called Copy (publishing), copy or sales copy, is written content t ...

and became the

creative director A creative director is a person who makes high-level creative decisions; oversees the creation of creative assets such as advertisements, products, events, or logos; and directs and translates the creative people who produce the end results. Creat ...

in 2001. Sutherland worked on Ogilvy's

American Express American Express Company or Amex is an American bank holding company and multinational financial services corporation that specializes in payment card industry, payment cards. It is headquartered at 200 Vesey Street, also known as American Expr ...

and

Dove Columbidae is a bird family consisting of doves and pigeons. It is the only family in the order Columbiformes. These are stout-bodied birds with small heads, relatively short necks and slender bills that in some species feature fleshy ceres. ...

soap accounts. From 2008 to 2012, Sutherland was president of the

Institute of Practitioners in Advertising The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA), incorporated by a Royal Charter, is the trade body and professional institute for agencies and individuals working in the UK's advertising, media and marketing communications industry. History F ...

(IPA). In 2012, Sutherland founded the behavioural science practice within the Ogilvy Group, whose goal is to develop marketing techniques inspired by the fields of psychology and economics, rather than shaping customer desires through conventional advertising. Sutherland has been noted for his popularity on

TikTok TikTok, known in mainland China and Hong Kong as Douyin (), is a social media and Short-form content, short-form online video platform owned by Chinese Internet company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which may range in duration f ...

, and described by ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' as "one of the most unlikely TikTok sensations of the day." After a fan started uploading clips of Sutherland's talks, interviews and podcast appearances, Sutherland and Ogilvy eventually took over running the account.

Books

* 2011: Sutherland published his first book, ''The Wiki Man'', and since publication he has regularly written a column that has the same title in ''

'' magazine. * 2019: Sutherland published his second book called ''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 a core that is profoundly irrational. * 2021: He followed it up with ''Transport For Humans: Are we nearly there yet?'' (co-authored with Department for Transport behavioural scientist Pete Dyson).

Personal life

Sutherland is married to Sophie Sutherland, a priest at Bromley Parish Church. They have twin daughters.TED biography of Rory Sutherland
ted.com; accessed 6 October 2015.

References

External links

''Wiki Man'' columns
in ''

''.
Sutherland discussing his book
on

EconTalk ''EconTalk'' is a weekly economics podcast hosted by Russ Roberts. Roberts, formerly an economics professor at George Mason University, is a research fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. On the podcast, Roberts typically interviews ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sutherland, Rory British advertising executives Marketing theorists Branding theorists

People from Usk Alumni of Christ's College, Cambridge The Spectator people 1965 births Living people