Resurrection, not invention

“My activity was in fact not an invention, but a resurrection.” Rory Sutherland

From the 1920s through to the 1970s, large ad agencies in New York and London hired psychologists to work inside the agency.

John B. Watson, who popularised scientific theory of behaviourism, joined JWT in 1920, one of the first ad firms to apply behaviourist principles to advertising.

Herta Herzog, an Austrian-American social scientist with a Ph.D. in psychology, left academia in 1943 to join McCann-Erickson’s market-research department.

Add to that, many large agencies employed external psychology consultants on retainer.

But this practice rarely happens nowadays.

As Rory Sutherland told me,

“For the past 40 years, advertising agencies have defined themselves by what they do, not how they think.” Rory Sutherland

As a result, they’ve diminished their influence, stature, and to some extent, earnings.

When Rory was elected president of the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) in 2009, he set out to reverse that trend.

Rory was highly respected and well-known within the industry, but not yet a public figure beyond it.

This was before his viral TED talks, before Alchemy, and before the many podcast appearances that would make him one of the most recognisable voices in marketing and behavioural science.

“I realised that a lot of advertising made intuitive use of behavioural science, but found it very difficult to explain what it was doing, which often made it seem perverse or weird to the clients it served, when in fact it made perfect sense through the lens of psychology.” Rory Sutherland

In his two year presidency at IPA, Rory made behavioural psychology the central plank of his residency.

“My enthusiasm was to take behavioural science and psychology and re-inject it back into the advertising category.” Rory Sutherland

Rory reminded agencies that they were not simply campaign executors, but advisors capable of influencing human behaviour.

This had all happened previously, but the industry had forgotten who and what it was.

After his presidency, Rory established Ogilvy Consulting’s Behavioural Science Practice and became a public speaker.

Notoriety followed.

His insights didn’t revolve around what advertisers did, but how they thought. How seemingly irrational but brilliant marketing makes sense through the lens of behavioural science.

Like, how and why does a soft drink that tastes considerably worse than Coke, comes in a much smaller can, and costs twice as much become one of the biggest success stories on the planet – Red Bull.

Rory didn’t invent anything new.

He didn’t invent the behavioural scientific principles. And, while he worked with many blue chip clients, he didn’t work on many of the examples that he uses.

Like many of THE most successful authority brands today, Rory draws from one field, a field that was forgotten in his industry, and uses it as a lens through which to make sense of modern phenomena.

Ryan Holiday did the same with stoicism. Robert Greene did the same with Laws of Power and Human Nature.

The world is obsessed with interpreting events and occurrences through the lens of new technology and trending principles.

Rory did the opposite.