Marketing Expert: The Playbook Behind Every Great Campaign | Rory Sutherland

The 'Dorman Fallacy' occurs when consultants define a complex human role (like a hotel doorman) narrowly (opening doors) and replace it with technology, saving money in year one while destroying value through loss of security, guest recognition, status signaling, and other tacit functions the doorman provided.

“you have a hotel it's a five-star hotel it has a dormant someone who welcomes incoming guests... they will replace said dorman with automatic door opening mechanism and an infrared human detector and we'll save you 30 $40,000 a year and then they walk away... The dorman was doing multiple things, many of which were human and kind of tacit. Security would be one... 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.”

Big innovative new ideas require MORE marketing (not less) because they ask people to do something new and unfamiliar, creating both unfamiliarity anxiety and execution anxiety.

“big innovative new ideas don't require less marketing they require more because you're asking people to at the initial stages you're asking someone to do something that nobody else has done and you're asking them to do something they haven't done before both of which create a kind of disqu and so providing people with conviction and reassurance quite often I suspect by the way in the early stages of a technology that happens one to one”

Geoffrey Miller's theory suggests women sometimes arrive late or do something mildly annoying on first dates as a psychopath detection test, because psychopathic traits (inability to control impulses, lack of shame) will surface in response to minor frustrations.

“If you're on a first date, there's an element where apparently, it's a long time. I've been married for 30 something years, but women on a first date will turn up a bit late or do something a little bit annoying. And Miller's theory is that it's a psychopath detection test.”

Peter Drucker's definition: 'The purpose of business is to find and keep a customer profitably' defines marketing as creating or finding customers with whom you can engage in mutually advantageous relationships to mutual profit.

“Peter Ducker the purpose of business is to find and keep a customer profitably uh that's the purpose of marketing it's to you know to you know to either create or find uh customers with whom over time you can engage in mutually advantageous relationships to mutual profit”

The 'I'm Feeling Lucky' button on Google is rarely used because people strongly prefer to see search results above the fold; very few users accept a single computer-selected result when they could choose between multiple options.

“nobody clicked the I'm feeling lucky button on Google... the number of people who actually click it, i.e., I'm feeling lucky, take me straight to a single page, is vanishingly small. people want to choose between, you know, effectively above the fold options.”

Geoffrey Miller's theory illustrates that status can be channeled toward positive-sum (hunting and sharing meat with tribe) or negative-sum (fighting with axes) outcomes depending on the currency: two tribes with identical status-seeking impulses will have vastly different outcomes depending on what status signals are valued.

“let's imagine two parallel tribes. Bluntly put, in one tribe, the men folk signal their desiraability as mates uh by uh fighting each other with axes. That's a negative sum game. In the neighboring tribe, they signal their desiraability of mates by going hunting and trying to bring home meat which they then share with the rest of the tribe. That's a positive sum game.”

'Technophasmosis' (by analogy with toxoplasmosis) occurs when tech people and management consultants take over the finance department, so marketing metrics that finance trusts are those that sell tech solutions, not those that build brand value.

“the tech companies the consulting firms that sell stacks and I owe a lot of this to a guy called Adel Bori very interesting self-taught Libyan marketing writer... Annel Bori and I coined the phrase technopplasmosis by analogy with toxopplasmosis which is tech people and consultants have taken over the finance department so that 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”

The primary reason for success of private companies is not just better customer service but also that they practice customer value movement rather than shareholder value movement, viewing customer care as the main objective.

“the primary reason for the success of these private companies. It the secondary reason is they look after their consumers better because they're effectively uh unwittingly their practitioners in the customer value movement, not the shareholder value movement.”

In the 19th century, using a posh local real estate agent (higher commission, established reputation) was not irrational because they had reputational skin in the game and were vulnerable to reputational damage in the local community.

“in the 19th century if you were a posh and respected real estate agent you had a lot of reputational skin in the game in the local community both commercially in people, you know, so you were highly vulnerable to reputational damage both commercially and also socially”

We don't fully understand the value of using personal qualities as a proxy for complex decisions we can't technically evaluate; doing so seems suboptimal but actually reduces downside risk, which is the real goal (not optimization but risk reduction).

“We don't fully know, you see, the value of what is going on in using a personal quality as a proxy for a decision which is simply too complicated to legalize or to reduce to numbers. Also, it is I'll completely agree in economic terms, it's suboptimal, but if it leads to downside variance reduction, which is what we're really trying to do. We're not trying to optimize. We're trying to reduce the risk of downsize.”

Unique or once-in-a-generation assets (like prime lakefront properties, fiber optic infrastructure) deserve premium prices because the opportunity won't recur; paying more for a scarce, non-replaceable asset is rational.

“a lot of these things only come up once. I don't get another shot at it... is this like a once in a generation property that I'm never going to have the shot at again and if you can frame frame things is also much more likely to be scarce as the rarer you get generally and then overpaying you make overpaying seem rational and in a way it kind of is rational where it's like well this is only going to come up once”

Dyson is privately owned, not a public company, which is crucial because public companies (on NASDAQ, NYSE) are incentivized to behave like psychopaths by optimizing around short-term transactional value rather than long-term relationship building.

“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.”

Of the five gold winners at the UK IPA advertising effectiveness awards, four were family-controlled (McCain, Yorkshire Tea, Specsavers, Laithwaites) and the fifth was Guinness, showing a pattern that family companies execute marketing better.

“Four out of the five winners, namely McCain, your Canadian uh heroes. Um McCain, Yorkshire Tea, Specs Savers, and Laithweights, a wine company. Four out of the five winners... the fifth one was Guinness, which is sort of a family company in a sense, although it's owned by a Dio.”

Call centers are the only way to discover problems customers can't solve elsewhere; they should be at the center of the organization, not outsourced, and British Airways' call center should be on the same floor as the boardroom.

“your call center is the only way you can find out the problems that people can't solve anywhere else... I would argue that the call center of British Airways should be on the same floor as the boardroom because it's where you find out where you're going wrong with your existing customers who are the most important people.”

As a private company, John Bragg doesn't have public company shareholder pressures, so he doesn't mind paying premium prices for acquisitions if it takes 5 years instead of 3 years to break even, because he won't get another shot at these assets.

“but if there's something more volatile, he gets very nervous about the debt. But he also had this thing where it was so counterintuitive to what you hear on Wall Street, which is is like, I don't mind paying more, you know? I don't mind paying the most. Uh, and I was like, really, that surprises me. And he's like, well, a lot of these things only come up once. I don't get another shot at it. And if I'm a private company, I don't have public company shareholders, uh, and it takes me, you know, 5 years versus 3 years to get my money back out of the deal, why do I care?”

John Ralston Saul (Canadian) argues that human brains evolved with multiple mental capabilities (reason, imagination, creativity, common sense) but society has made rationality the gold standard, overvaluing logic.

“John Rolston saw wrote this book which I think is called Voltater's Bastards and he argues that human brains have evolved with a variety of mental capabilities only one of which is the capacity for reason. There's also the capacity for imagination, creativity, common sense, you know, etc. We have a whole variety of different mental mechanisms at our disposal... And yet we've made rationality the gold standard.”

If you can't claim credit for value created except in the quarter/year you had the idea, you're systematically underfunding creative work that creates outsized long-term value (analogous to only giving JK Rowling royalties on first edition Harry Potter).

“If you cannot claim the credit for that except to the extent that it delivers value in the quarter in which you had the idea... you are underfunding your marketing effort. So, it's like saying to imagine if you went to JK Rowling and said, "Yep, you can have the royalties on the Harry Potter books, but only on the first edition."”

50% of effort in life (once you've secured basic safety and provided for children) should be attempts to get lucky, increasing surface area exposure to positive upside optionality and finding opportunity.

“50 50% of your effort in life once you've ensured the fact that you're not going to starve to death, die, etc. You know, you've looked after your children should be attempts to get lucky. In other words, what Nim would say, I love this phrase, uh, increasing your surface area exposure to posit to positive upside optionality. You know, finding opportunity.”

When buying a house, don't optimize by seeking properties with universal appeal; instead, find something most people dislike but you don't care about (e.g., next to a pub, on a railway line), allowing you to arbitrage others' preferences and buy something more valuable for less because fewer people want it.

“when you're looking for a house don't optimize because everybody will want that house. Instead find something the house has which most people won't like but you don't care about next to a pub... Go and look for those things where you can arbitrage uh what's possible”

People are now so afraid of making subjective decisions that they fall back on inappropriate rules and regulations rather than exercise judgment, because you can't get fired for following the rules.

“we've created a culture where people are so afraid of making a subjective decision that they fall back on often totally inappropriate rules and regulations. And there are a whole bunch of people who are employed... who are much more interested in adherence to uh approved procedure than they are in quality of outcome. Because you can't get fired for following the rules.”

Economists fantasize about direct price/efficiency competition, but this fantasy is based on the false premise that people know what they want; without differentiation, people suffer (red ocean competition).

“economists have this fantasy of the world of companies in direct competition driving down price and increasing efficiency while supplying the same thing which is based on a false premise that people know what they want to begin with. Now I would argue when you don't create differentiation, everybody suffers.”

When optimizing for a problem, do not define the objective purely in psychological-free (narrow/technical) terminology; include psychological factors (like 'feels like' temperature vs. ambient temperature) because optimal solutions often come from changing psychology, not technology.

“do not define an objective which is designed to serve human beings without considering psychological factors because you might be able to solve your problem very very cheaply and efficiently by changing the psychology not by changing the technology”

One of the greatest forms of efficiency is employing a human being who's really nice, which is anathema to tech people who want to define business processes to make them susceptible to automation.

“one of the greatest forms of efficiency, by the way, is employing a human being who's really, really nice. Now, this is complete anathema to people in tech who love to define business processes so as to make them susceptible to automation.”

In 50% of cases, advisors should tell clients to take 10-20% of their marketing budget and spend it on upgrading the call center with highly paid, skilled people, because excellent call center interactions have more impact on brand perception than any other marketing activity.

“I've worked in advertising for 36 years. And if I were a wholly honest person, uh, without, you know, fear of annoying my colleagues, probably 50% of the time, I would advise to a client, take 10 to 20% of your marketing budget and spend it on upgrading the call center. Pay the people too much. Get the best practitioners.”

Success is expanding the adjacent possible—pushing the boundary of what's feasible and opening new options for others—through small, consistent pushes that accumulate.

“Just expanding the adjacent possible. That's a very pretentious article, but push the pebble a bit further. That that's it”

When courts extend liability unreasonably (e.g., demanding trees be cut down because a grandchild was allergic to their nuts), it opens the path to widespread negative second-order consequences (deforestation) through its own logic.

“someone demanded that trees were dropped down in their street because one of their grandchildren was allergic to the nut that came off the tree... ultimately you've opened up the path to widespread deforestation because nobody can grow a tree anywhere to which anybody could claim to be allergic.”

Most people subconsciously use downside variance reduction (judging the person, following others, doing what they've done before) as their decision mechanism, but if they consciously articulate this strategy, it's a reverse signal that they're not actually well-calibrated.

“You you say it like it's a conscious thing, but I think it's an unconscious because because if it is conscious, it's probably a reverse signal that you're actually a bit uh offkilter. if you're consciously doing that.”

Frequent business travelers prefer the priority security lane even when it's longer because they assume the people in front of them are more competent, showing they use heuristics (infer competence from lane choice) rather than observing actual queue speed.

“in a weird kind of way I think you notice sometimes that the queue for the priority lane in security is longer than the queue for the amateur lane. But frequent business travelers will still join the priority lane on the assumption that the people in front of them are more competent.”

A person (like Rory's mother) with strong judgment about people might be more reliable at buying used cars than someone with an engineering qualification, because they evaluate the seller rather than technical specifications.

“my mother didn't know anything about cars, knew a lot about people. I think she would very reliably go around buying cars just through her assessment of the seller. And similarly, I think she might do better than someone with an engineering qualification who ignored who the seller was and their personality and character.”

Economists assume real estate transactions are purely transactional exchanges and that websites (Zillow, Rightmove) should replace agents through disintermediation, but this ignores the fact that vendors often care about who buys the property, especially if they've invested 15+ years improving it.

“the assumption of an economist is that you need to disintermediate... But for one thing, actually, someone who's invested 15 years in doing up a house probably cares about what the person buying it is going to do to the house.”

Technology optimization creates an opportunity to compete through the opposite approach: if everyone is being served by AI-driven call centers, providing genuinely empathetic human service becomes scarce and valuable, allowing smaller companies to win through human-centered differentiation.

“There's so much opportunity here, right? If you think of you competing in a world where we're moving to AI-driven call centers, uh if I took the exact opposite approach, which is by the way, you should do both... if you took the exact opposite approach... that would be competitive advantage”

The human component (face-to-face interaction and personal relationships) does 'really heavy lifting' in evaluating any business or experience, and tech people and males in general underestimate the extent of this compared to quantifiable metrics.

“the extent to which in evaluating any business or experience, the human component of it, the face-to-face component does really really heavy lifting. And I've got a lovely story to illustrate this which I think is fantastic. It's the absolute perfect example of misalignment of optimization through quantification bias.”

In any service organization, interactions with employees (call center, phone, face-to-face) disproportionately affect perception of the organization compared to online interactions, even when online interactions constitute 95% of total contact.

“in any service organization. You know, you may... interact with them online 95% of the time, but the one or two occasions where you interact by telephone or face to face disproportionately affect your your perception of the organization.”

When buying a used car, if a female vicar or respectable-looking person answers the door, buyers upweight their willingness to pay by ~20%; if someone in their underpants answers, buyers devalue by ~$1,000+, using the seller's trustworthiness as a heuristic proxy for the car's quality.

“you turn up at the house... you decide you're interested in paying, let's say, $5,000 for this car. So, you go and ring on the doorbell... In one situation by, for example, a female vicar... tidy clean house. At that point, you probably upweight what you're prepared to pay by 20% or so. In in a parallel universe, the door is answered by a guy in his underpants... you devalue the car, I suspect, by about $1,000 or more.”

Real estate agents deliberately prevent vendor-buyer meetings until surveys and major commitments are in place because if either party doesn't like the other personally, they won't buy or sell regardless of price or property condition.

“every estate agent does their utmost to make sure that until things are signed and sealed, the vendor never meets the buyer and vice versa. And the reason for that is if one of them doesn't like the other, they won't buy or sell.”

Rory didn't buy a house because the vendor was being difficult about a fridge (worth ~0.02% of house value), because the vendor's pettiness broke trust, and his instinct was vindicated when later investigation revealed the vendor was indeed untrustworthy (part of garden belonged to Network Rail).

“I once by the way I once didn't buy a house basically because the guy was being an about the fridge... because he was being a dick about the fridge, I no longer trusted him about the house... Weirdly, it turned out my instinct was right because then a friend of ours went to buy the same house. They got some separate land registry search done and found out that a chunk of the garden actually belonged to Network Rail”

Someone willing to quote famous garden designers and show genuine knowledge of gardening could buy a home from fanatical gardeners for £200,000 less than someone suggesting destroying trees for a helipad, because buyers prefer selling to people who will care for their life's work.

“if you went and looked around their house and placed an offer while being an expert in botany and generally quoting people like Gertude Jel and, you know, prominent garden designers... you could buy their house for 200,000 less than if you turned up and said, "Brilliant, we can knock down that tree and put in a helipad."”

Some business experiences have additive/subtractive effects (marginal gains/losses) while others have multiplicative effects (can multiply by zero or ten); call center experiences are multiplicative because a single bad interaction can destroy trust and negate all other value creation.

“there's almost like there's some experiences that are sort of additive or subtractive and then there's some that are multiplicative like you can multiply by zero or you can multiply by 10 like a difference in that one particular factor.”

A 'brand quake' occurs when a company resolves a customer problem really well and then calls back to confirm the problem is solved, creating disproportionate positive impact on brand perception.

“there's a really interesting organization... they call this a brand quake. A brand quake is where you do something. It could be resolving a problem really well. That would be a very good opportunity for a brandquake. The person has a problem. you put quite a lot of effort and intelligence into solving it very effectively for them. Um and then you ring them back to check that the problem has indeed been solved.”

When private companies are led by founders, they're not run by the finance department, creating a structural difference from public companies that prioritizes long-term effectiveness over short-term metrics.

“I think maybe the the generalization is that like if they're private companies led by a founder, then they're not run by the finance department. It's so interesting.”

Family-run companies should wear a badge or kite mark so consumers can prefer to buy from companies not listed on stock exchanges, because unlisted companies are more trustworthy (not controlled by finance function).

“I think familyrun companies, this would include people like um SC Johnson. I think they should wear a badge. Do you see what I mean? Just as you have a kite mark on British... I would argue that we should actually have a kite mark that allows consumers to prefer to buy from companies which aren't listed on some stock exchange somewhere and hence aren't controlled by the finance function because they're more trustworthy.”

Good service organizations should provide both streamlined efficient service for people who know what they want AND extremely empathetic service for people who are uncertain or in unusual situations, requiring both approaches in parallel.

“A really, really good service organization allows for very streamlined efficient service for people who know exactly what they want and extremely emp empathetic service for people who are undecided, uncertain or find themselves in an unusual situation. And so you need to do both.”

Tech bros are not neurotypical and don't represent the broader human population; when they have too much power over decision-making (with help from management consultancy), they optimize for values distant from what real-world customers care about.

“when you allow tech bros too much power over decision-making along with their running dog lackey in kind of management consultancy, you're optimizing for something which may be very very distant from what your real world customers really care about... people who work in this field and not representative of the whole human population. That's a reasonable assertion.”

Tech and consulting firms aren't interested in the other 2/3 of marketing (brand building, call center investment) because they don't make money if companies spend money on call centers rather than software.

“they're not interested in the other two/irds of the game because they don't make money if someone spends money on their call center or, you know, upgrades their call center staff or allows the call center staff to call out.”

Marketing logic applies to real estate: when buying a cottage, the question isn't just 'is this worth $X?' but 'is this a once-in-a-generation opportunity I'll never see again?', reframing the decision standard.

“So like I I have a friend actually going through this now they're looking at buying a family cottage and I'm like how do you think about these things he's like I saw this one it was perfect but it was a little more money than I brought this up having a cottage on a lake on which yours is the only cottage... could you buy their house for 200,000 less than if you turned up and said, "Brilliant, we can knock down that tree and put in a helipad."”

In advertising, rationality is the bronze standard (starting point), not the gold standard; a rational ad is considered mediocre; good advertising requires emotional engagement, humor, memorability, or other qualities beyond logical argumentation.

“rationality is the bronze standard in advertising. If someone says, you know, uh this is the problem and you come up with a completely rational solution, um people don't go, right, that's perfect. let's go and do it... In advertising, if you came up with a rational ad, people go, "Yeah, it's all right, but can you do a bit better?" You know, is there an ad that says the same thing, but in a more emotionally engaging way?”

A famous quote from Neil Spore: 'You're not thinking, you are merely being logical,' meaning logic is inferior to genuine thinking.

“There's a famous quote, you know, fascinatingly from Neil Spore who said, "You're not thinking, you are merely being logical." Isn't it?”

Neil Spore also said: 'In boring physics, the opposite of a good idea is wrong, but in high-level physics, the opposite of a good idea might be another good idea,' showing that complex systems don't have simple opposites.

“he also was the person who said the opposite of a good idea, you know, in boring physics, the opposite of a good idea is wrong, but in high level physics, the opposite of a good idea might be another good idea.”

You don't find entrepreneurs in chess clubs, you find them in casinos playing poker and baccarat; entrepreneurs are people who play high-variance games with occasional huge payoffs, not people optimizing for certainty.

“this is the brutal truth. Okay, you don't find entrepreneurs in chess clubs. You find entrepreneurs in casinos. They're playing poker. They're playing bat gam. You know, they're playing games of chance with an occasional very high payoff.”

Organizations run by finance people try to eliminate variance (make business predictable like chess), but business is fundamentally high-variance like poker; quarterly metrics and cost-cutting impose false certainty.

“A lot of life is exactly like that, but you don't know where the huge payoff's going to come in advance. The people who are running these organizations for the benefit of financial predictability are trying to make it chess. They're trying to turn it into a reductionist game where the most you can score is one for a win.”

Sometimes in marketing, all you need to do is tell people a fact; for example, if antivaxxers knew vaccines dated to 1796 (smallpox), they might perceive them as established medicine rather than new-fangled.

“Sometimes all you need to do is tell people a fact. Now I don't know any evidence about this and I'd like to know it and I asked this question which is of the people who are antiaxers during co was there a difference between the people who are basically happy with the idea of a vaccine and the people who weren't partly driven by whether you knew that vaccination dated back to the 18th century and smallox.”

Stuart Butterfield (Slack founder) says the only real measure of innovation is behavioral change; innovation is only significant if it changes how people behave in first and second-order ways.

“A re since your fellow Canadian Stuart Butterfield, isn't it? Who founded um Slack? Yeah. Uh he says the only real measure of innovation is behavioral change. that the only real measure of whether an innovation is significant is whether it h it both in first order and second order ways changes the way people behave.”

The best technology doesn't always win; engineering-focused people (measure-baiters) optimize for technical specs while ignoring human appeal, missing why iPhones beat technically superior competitors.

“That's a very engineering point of view because you're judging technology by its um engineering qualities rather than its uh human appeal. Oh that's an interesting reframing. So uh there are there are people in every field like in the camera world there are people called measure baiters. They're they're denigrated as measure baiters because they're obsessed with the numerical qualities of the camera. Yeah. You focal lengths and all that stuff and they don't take very good photographs.”

Many valuable goods became affordable to the mass market only after they started as luxury goods for the wealthy, because the prestige cycle (luxury → desirable → mass production → affordable) is how innovation diffuses through society.

“I mean, if we genuinely didn't care, okay, if we had no shame, uh, you're absolutely right. I mean, no one, you know, I'm sure, by the way, I think also a lot of valuable goods are affordable now by everybody because they started as luxury goods.”

Social norms around children's independence have shifted from parental responsibility to parental negligence/irresponsibility: in the 1970s, a child cycling 11 miles alone or climbing on a roof was normal; now parents would be criminalized for the same behavior, representing a threshold effect where norms flip rather than shift gradually.

“when I was 11 I used to cycle 11 miles to the nearest town to see my grandmother on my own at the age of 11 and then when I told them which they did know I used to at the age of sort of 11 climb up onto the apex of the roof and just wander around on the roof 30t up... My parents were a gasast that they'd ever allowed it to happen. But if most people did that at the time it was normal... My parents would have been locked up for sever, you know, several of the things which I was allowed to do uh when I was young... you reach a a threshold or a tipping point”

With the exception of P&G, Diageo, and Unilever, publicly-traded marketing companies cannot do marketing very well because the requirement for short-term self-justification and numerical metrics overrides the real purpose of marketing, which is long-term customer value investment.

“in the IPA advertising effectiveness awards in the UK my argument is that with the exception of PNG Dagio unilever marketing le companies I don't think that plc's what do you call them in you know publicly traded I don't think they can actually do marketing very well because the requirement for short-term self-justification and numbers effectively overrides the real purpose of marketing which is investment in long-term customer value.”

At Dyson, when the call center presented efficiency statistics (average call time, wait time), James Dyson rejected the framing and said the company should be honored that customers chose to contact them, and should respond accordingly.

“he was sitting in a presentation, James Dyson presiding and they were presenting the call center sort of efficiency statistics... Dyson basically said, "Stop right now. You've got this all wrong. The way we should look at this is we should treat it as an honor if one of our customers chooses to get in touch with us, and we should therefore respond to them accordingly, as if we're flattered by the contact, not as if we're bothered by the interruption”

Buy Korean consumer goods (and Korean companies) because they are simultaneously motivated by profit and by a desire to outcompete Japanese companies, creating dual motivation that produces higher quality than pure profit optimization.

“always good reason to buy Korean stuff do you know why because they're going to do that anyway the Koreans are going to make fantastic tech and fantastic cars regardless of the profit motive do you know why to wind up the Japanese”

We need variation in approaches and people like Elon Musk, not fewer; society progresses through differences, and even when you disagree with someone, their existence pushing boundaries drives progress.

“we need more people like Elon, not fewer in the world. Whether you agree with him or not, this is how society progresses. We need differences. We have an environment and people thrive or don't thrive in that environment.”

When pursuing efficiency, people focus on numerical and mechanical factors and disregard psychological factors where the greater gains may actually be found; therefore organizations focus too heavily on cost reduction and too little on value creation.

“when you pursue efficiency there are quite a few problems. But when you pursue efficiency generally you start looking at numerical or mechanical factors and of course in the process you disregard psychological factors where the greater gains may be found and so you focus too heavily on cost reduction and too little on value creation.”

When evaluating a book, great copy is conversational in style; David Ogilvy was a copywriter first and author second, and his books are readable because he writes plainly but occasionally inserts sophisticated vocabulary to acknowledge reader intelligence.

“David Oglevie, all his books are incredibly readable because I think he was a copywriter first and an author second... His pro style is very good and he also adopts a clever trick which I've stolen and which uh a few other people is that he writes extremely plainly for the most part but will throw in the odd cescoilian long word just to remind the reader that he you know you're not an idiot. You know it's almost there to flatter the reader as much as it is to flatter the writer.”

Whether AI (in 2024) has achieved behavioral change is uncertain; AI hasn't yet found an interface that drives adoption the way Steve Jobs did with GUI.

“Now an interesting question is is AI at that point yet? And my second question is the lesson of all tech is that loads and loads of geeks compete through for technological numerical superiority by some measure or other. And then someone else comes along with a cute user interface and makes all the money. It's basically Steve Jobs. Yeah. Nobody's done that yet for AI.”

Jaguar's 'Copy Nothing' brand film (not an advertisement) was responding to founder William Lyons' 1932 motto 'Copy Nothing,' but was misread by right-wing critics as politically progressive rather than brand heritage.

“they showed it at the launch of the car. And then I had a right-wing podcast uh in the UK going, you know, it utters the most out, you know, um outrageous anti-conservative sentiment, which is copy nothing. Copy nothing was the exhortation of Sir William Lions who founded Jaguar. You know, I I I think he said it in 1932.”

Management consulting 'gain-share agreements' are scams where consultants claim a percentage of cost savings identified in year one; any idiot can cut costs, but real skill is cutting costs without destroying value.

“are they on a gain share agreement. A gain share agreement is a management consulting scam where you claim uh a certain percentage of the cost savings you identify in year one. Now as Roger L. Martin, your fellow Canadian and my own personal Svengali says, "Any idiot can cut costs." Okay. What takes real skill is cutting cost in a way that doesn't destroy value.”

Rory's father, a frugal Scottish man, bought three or four Dyson vacuum cleaners despite their high price because he was fanatically loyal, showing that loyalty based on good call center experiences overrides price-sensitivity.

“I think three um when he died he had three or four Dyson devices which he'd bought from new in his home he had one on each floor to save from carrying them upstairs. Now these are by any objective measure pretty expensive vacuum cleaners... One of the reasons he was so fanatically loyal was that Dyson, now interestingly, I'm going to make a point here, which is a privately owned company.”

John Bragg, a billionaire from Oxford, Nova Scotia (population 1,100), created three multi-billion dollar companies and wasn't afraid of debt; he leveraged heavily multiple times to acquire assets, but becomes nervous when volatility is high.

“he created Oxford frozen foods he's this incredible story he's this billionaire from this small town of 1100 people... three multi-billion dollar companies from this small town... And he said, "I wasn't afraid of debt at all." No. And we levered up massively. We went all in multiple times acquiring more assets”

Ogilvey Australia created a billion-dollar idea that has run for 10+ years and still generates value, but the agency was paid only $350,000 Australian dollars total for creating a $1+ billion idea.

“There's an enormous idea for a very large enormous American, let's say, fastmoving consumer goods company. There's an idea conceived by Oglev Australia. It has made that company in excess of a billion dollars in the last 10 years. It's still running... For that idea, the agency in Australia got paid $350,000 Australian dollars.”

Gillette's 'toxic masculinity' advertisement conflated the #MeToo movement with barbecuing and play-fighting, unnecessarily insulting core customers by painting normal male behavior as toxic.

“Gillette ran an advertisement. They realized they had to move on perhaps from the best a man can get despite the fact obviously that their customer base is overwhelmingly male... They produced an ad which I would argue... was needlessly um insulting towards men in that it conflated the me too movement with barbecuing. Okay... it seemed to take a definition of toxic masculinity which went... the whole spectrum from things which all rightinking men would quite rightly condemn to things which for example two boys having a you know a small scrap on a patch of grass... I don't think is particularly objectionable.”

Rory doesn't own a luxury car because his identity (left-field, advertising creative) is incompatible with Audi (signals financial services/managerial); brand choice is about identity expression, not just utility.

“I work in advertising. Okay. I'm I'm massive car lover... But part of my shtick, okay, is being a bit left field. And if I drive around in an Audi, it kind of screams I work in financial services... And so, you know, I've always bought slightly weird cars”

Rory's brother (astrophysicist) provided reassurance that convinced him to buy an electric car; early adoption of new technology is often one-to-one (personal persuasion) rather than mass marketing.

“it was my brother who's he's an astrophysicist so he knows all the bloody maths about kilowatt hours and stuff so my brother provided me with the reassurance to buy my first electric car I don't think if he hadn't bought an electric car I've now had Three, would I have bought an electric car? No, probably not.”

Apple's decision to cancel its car project was a strategic mistake because the company had sufficient brand power to create a new category of microtransport (especially useful in dense cities like New York and London) and finance was not the right department to make this decision.

“I lost faith in Apple when they canled the car... brand power to create for places like New York and London a form of microtransport which was really really cool... The finance people killed it”

Renting a car on holidays provides more optionality because if the hotel is poor or in a bad area, you can get in the car and find a beach elsewhere; this optionality is worth the car rental cost.

“I always argue that over 36 years holidays where I've rented a car are better than holidays where I haven't. And my argument is you have more optionality. See? Oh, interesting. So if you've rented a car and you find the hotel's a bit meh or the hotel's not in a great area, you can just get in the car and go and find a beach somewhere else”

Tesla ownership in Ottawa has become controversial/unpopular because of associations with Elon Musk's politics, so Rory's Tesla has been keyed and hit multiple times, showing identity signaling can create social costs.

“I got a Tesla... I have one of these dryers from the 80s in my house... been keyed three times... run into by uh somebody I can only assume intentionally [in the past]”

People evaluate personal consumption decisions partly through a 'cost per entertainment hour' lens: paying $100 for a video game that provides 100+ hours is ~$1/hr (cheaper than cinema at $10/hr), making expensive purchases of high-engagement items economically rational despite appearing wasteful.

“cost per entertainment hour is quite interesting because it was used to explain the fact that relatively poor young people will spend 90 $100 on a computer game... they might play that game for 80 90 100 hours... So, it's super cheap... compared to going to the cinema where it's $10 per entertainment hour”