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Rory Sutherland

Rory Sutherland

@rory-sutherland · 16 positions · On ppll ↗

Rory Sutherland is vice chairman of Ogilvy UK, where he helped found the agency's behavioural science practice. He wrote Alchemy: The Dark Art and Curious Science of Creating Magic in Brands, Business and Life, and writes a column for The Spectator.

Rory Sutherland did not write this page.

We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.

5 of Rory Sutherland's claims fit 5 mental models. Most often: Incentives, Play long games, Power laws.

Models they name

Their own words name the idea.

Play long games

A longer horizon makes some problems solvable and some short-term wins look like what they are.

Used by 41 others

Publicly traded companies are incentivised to behave like psychopaths, because they are optimised for short-term transactions rather than long-term relationships.

Mental modelIncentives

  1. Rory Sutherland Rory Sutherland is vice chairman of Ogilvy UK PLC's or um uh or or companies on the NASDAQ or the New York Stock Exchange are incentivized to behave like psychopaths because they're optimized around short-term transactional value, not long-term relationship building. Marketing Expert: The Playbook Behind Every Great Campaign | Rory Sutherlandyoutube.com · 9 Dec 2025 · 0:28:30 into the videoAll korrents from this video
    Their wordsPLC's or um uh or or companies on the NASDAQ or the New York Stock Exchange are incentivized to behave like psychopaths because they're optimized around short-term transactional value, not long-term relationship building.

    Where this was said

    Watch from 0:28:30 plays here

    ↗Marketing Expert: The Playbook Behind Every Great Campaign | Rory Sutherlandyoutube.com

    9 Dec 2025 · video · 2h 00m · spoken · machine transcript

Power laws

In many things a few cases account for most of the result, so the average misleads and the outlier decides.

Used by 25 others

Marketing returns are fat-tailed, so paying for marketing by the hour misprices work whose value comes from a small fraction of it.

  1. Rory Sutherland Rory Sutherland is vice chairman of Ogilvy UK the reason it's a catastrophic way to be paid my argument is that marketing is actually fat tailed so is innovation R&D pharmaceutical research science okay in other words 5 to 10% of what you do delivers perhaps 110% of the value Marketing Expert: The Playbook Behind Every Great Campaign | Rory Sutherlandyoutube.com · 9 Dec 2025 · 0:59:20 into the videoAll korrents from this video
    Their wordsthe reason it's a catastrophic way to be paid my argument is that marketing is actually fat tailed so is innovation R&D pharmaceutical research science okay in other words 5 to 10% of what you do delivers perhaps 110% of the value

    Where this was said

    Watch from 0:59:20 plays here

    ↗Marketing Expert: The Playbook Behind Every Great Campaign | Rory Sutherlandyoutube.com

    9 Dec 2025 · video · 2h 00m · spoken · machine transcript

Signalling

Much of what people do is a message about themselves, and a signal is believed only when it costs something to send.

Used by 15 others

A gift's perceived price is part of what it does, so a drink known to be cheap fails at its job however good it tastes.

  1. Rory Sutherland Rory Sutherland is vice chairman of Ogilvy UK it doesn't matter how good the drink is if people think you've bought it for $8.95 it's not doing the job it's supposed to do which is to signal generosity to signal hospitality or to mark a special occasion Marketing Expert: The Playbook Behind Every Great Campaign | Rory Sutherlandyoutube.com · 9 Dec 2025 · 1:33:34 into the videoAll korrents from this video
    Their wordsit doesn't matter how good the drink is if people think you've bought it for $8.95 it's not doing the job it's supposed to do which is to signal generosity to signal hospitality or to mark a special occasion

    Where this was said

    Watch from 1:33:34 plays here

    ↗Marketing Expert: The Playbook Behind Every Great Campaign | Rory Sutherlandyoutube.com

    9 Dec 2025 · video · 2h 00m · spoken · machine transcript

Models we see in what they say

Our reading: their claim applies the idea without naming it. The claim is theirs; filing it here is ours.

Incentives

Look at what people are rewarded for; it explains more behaviour than what they say, your own included.

Used by 86 others

Publicly traded companies are incentivised to behave like psychopaths, because they are optimised for short-term transactions rather than long-term relationships.

Mental modelPlay long games

  1. Rory Sutherland Rory Sutherland is vice chairman of Ogilvy UK PLC's or um uh or or companies on the NASDAQ or the New York Stock Exchange are incentivized to behave like psychopaths because they're optimized around short-term transactional value, not long-term relationship building. Marketing Expert: The Playbook Behind Every Great Campaign | Rory Sutherlandyoutube.com · 9 Dec 2025 · 0:28:30 into the videoAll korrents from this video
    Their wordsPLC's or um uh or or companies on the NASDAQ or the New York Stock Exchange are incentivized to behave like psychopaths because they're optimized around short-term transactional value, not long-term relationship building.

    Where this was said

    Watch from 0:28:30 plays here

    ↗Marketing Expert: The Playbook Behind Every Great Campaign | Rory Sutherlandyoutube.com

    9 Dec 2025 · video · 2h 00m · spoken · machine transcript

The marketing metrics finance departments trust are the ones that sell technology, not the ones that build customer value over time.

  1. Rory Sutherland Rory Sutherland is vice chairman of Ogilvy UK the marketing metrics the finance department has faith in and demands from marketing are not those metrics which are most conducive to building brand and customer value over time. They're the metrics which are most conducive to selling tech solutions to the companies. Marketing Expert: The Playbook Behind Every Great Campaign | Rory Sutherlandyoutube.com · 9 Dec 2025 · 0:43:45 into the videoAll korrents from this video
    Their wordsthe marketing metrics the finance department has faith in and demands from marketing are not those metrics which are most conducive to building brand and customer value over time. They're the metrics which are most conducive to selling tech solutions to the companies.

    Where this was said

    Watch from 0:43:45 plays here

    ↗Marketing Expert: The Playbook Behind Every Great Campaign | Rory Sutherlandyoutube.com

    9 Dec 2025 · video · 2h 00m · spoken · machine transcript

The map is not the territory

Every model, word or plan is a simplified map of reality; useful when its structure matches, misleading when mistaken for the thing itself.

Used by 56 others

Cutting a job defined by its narrowest function destroys the tacit value that job was quietly creating.

  1. Rory Sutherland Rory Sutherland is vice chairman of Ogilvy UK the dorman was doing multiple things, many of which were human and kind of tacit. Security would be one. You know, there are no vagrants to sleep in the doorway, hailing taxis, dealing with luggage, recognizing regular guests, providing status to the hotel. There are loads and loads of value creation components to that dorman which aren't captured in the open the door definition. Marketing Expert: The Playbook Behind Every Great Campaign | Rory Sutherlandyoutube.com · 9 Dec 2025 · 0:05:30 into the videoAll korrents from this video
    Their wordsthe dorman was doing multiple things, many of which were human and kind of tacit. Security would be one. You know, there are no vagrants to sleep in the doorway, hailing taxis, dealing with luggage, recognizing regular guests, providing status to the hotel. There are loads and loads of value creation components to that dorman which aren't captured in the open the door definition.

    Where this was said

    Watch from 0:05:30 plays here

    ↗Marketing Expert: The Playbook Behind Every Great Campaign | Rory Sutherlandyoutube.com

    9 Dec 2025 · video · 2h 00m · spoken · machine transcript