Inspire Stage – Featured Keynote Speaker
An Audience with Rory Sutherland
Rory Sutherland, Vice Chairman of Ogilvy, co-founded a behavioral science practice within the agency that uncovers subtle, often overlooked psychological and contextual factors that dramatically influence consumer decisions—such as boosting sales by altering call centre scripts. While this innovative approach, focusing on “invented” and “discovered” media beyond the traditional bought, owned, and earned categories, is immensely valuable, it remains underfunded due to clients’ unawareness of the hidden problems it solves.
Key Takeaways
Small Contextual Changes Can Create Massive Impact
From rewording a call centre script to reframing how choices are presented, subtle tweaks in context often yield disproportionate effects on behavior. Real innovation isn’t always about big ideas—it’s about noticing what others overlook.
Not Every Problem Has a Budget—But That Doesn’t Mean It’s Not Worth Solving
Clients rarely allocate funds for the invisible barriers they can’t yet define. The most valuable work often lies in discovering and addressing these hidden influences—problems that require creativity, not just capital
Behavioural Science Unlocks ‘Invented Media’
Beyond bought, owned, and earned media lies a fourth frontier: invented media. These are the clever, unexpected interventions—rooted in psychology—that reshape perception and drive action without needing big spend.
Key Quotes
“Optimising for two things, you’re then optimising for reliability, what you might call a safe bet. But then you also need to optimise for a wild card, in other words, something of high variance. It may come to nothing but if it is, it’s going to be huge.”
“It’s always easier to win an argument if you believe there’s a single right answer”
“What we’re doing (recruiting) is partly mining for ore and partially treasure hunting! And what we need to do be doing is both at the same time.”
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