The marketing ‘alchemy’ most companies miss

Rory Sutherland is the vice-chairman of advertising group Ogilvy UK, a role that carries considerable clout in the world of advertising. But in recent years, he has become something more: a public figure.

He emerged as an accidental social media star after a fan began posting clips of his talks on platforms such as TikTok. These days, he can barely walk down a street in London without being asked for a selfie.

Audiences have been won over by his easy-going charm and his ability to explain his area of expertise — the psychology of consumer behaviour — in a way that is both accessible and entertaining. A walking encyclopaedia of marketing knowledge, Sutherland draws on four decades of experience in business, giving him a distinctive perspective on how UK companies can grow and what it takes to elevate a brand.

First and foremost, Sutherland is a passionate champion of the value of marketing departments. Marketing, he believes, is a useful intellectual exercise for a company even when it is not tied to a specific campaign. “The value of marketing is sometimes in the process, not the outcome,” he says. The act of producing a campaign forces businesses to ask fundamental, existential questions about their brand: why do we exist? What makes us different from our competitors?

Despite his acute awareness of the power of social media, Sutherland is also a firm believer in more traditional marketing channels. He argues that direct mail landing on the doormat is an under-rated resource for brand building, largely because of the context in which it is received.

People will often spend longer engaging with direct mail — an average of two minutes, he says — during quiet moments, whereas a Facebook or Google ad may only be glimpsed fleetingly while rushing to hail a taxi. Context, he argues, is crucial when trying to land a message.

There is another advantage, too: standing out. “Most of your competitors won’t copy you if you use direct mail, because they think it makes them look old-fashioned,” Sutherland notes.

He also believes that human-run call centres are an under-valued resource. A good call centre manager, he argues, should be earning a six-figure salary when you consider the impact they can have on a business and its brand reputation. The benefits may be hard to measure in the short term, but they can have profound long-term implications for revenue growth.

Linked to this is his belief that customer-facing staff should be given the freedom to bend the rules and use human discretion to show kindness. He offers the example of a customer who has just missed a train: if there is space on the next one, imagine the impact of generously allowing them to board, even if their ticket is not technically valid.

A marketer to his core, Sutherland is sceptical of finance departments that attempt to constrain creative work through restrictive KPIs and narrow definitions of immediate financial return. He questions why finance teams are often the only function seemingly exempt from the expectation of measurable KPIs themselves.

Sutherland’s final piece of advice applies to businesses of all sizes. “Find your unique selling point that brings disproportionate delight,” he says. This is what he calls the “alchemy” of marketing: when a brand focuses on emotional connection rather than simply appealing to customers’ wallets.

The specifics will vary widely by sector and speciality. But get that right, he argues, and you won’t go far wrong when it comes to scaling your brand.