Ogilvy vice-chairman and former IPA president Rory Sutherland has lifted the lid on what he believes is a major flaw of the marketing and advertising industry, insisting that professionals working in the sector have simply failed to explain, price and promote the true value they create.
His claims are contained in the first episode of the IPA’s new podcast series, Making Sense, in a characteristically expansive and provocative conversation.
In a discussion spanning TK Maxx, geriatric aids, and the value of sometimes “being more puppy”, Sutherland argues that marketing and advertising have fundamentally failed to market themselves.
He contends that agencies have limited their relevance by selling execution rather than thinking, and by communicating their value only to those who buy bought media.
Sutherland adds: “They’ve restricted themselves to an incredibly narrow target audience – about 0.01% of the addressable audience.
“They sell themselves on the basis of what they do, when they should sell themselves on the basis of how they think.”
Sutherland stresses that much of marketing’s value is long-term, building over years. Current accountability frameworks, he says, focus only on immediate cost management, leaving little recognition for value created in the past or impacting the future.
He uses Coca-Cola’s ‘Share a Coke’ campaign as an example of long-term value: by putting names on cans, the campaign created engagement and loyalty that continues to deliver returns beyond the initial spend. Sutherland argues that agencies therefore need to think about the timeframe of payback and reclaim value often credited to other departments when it helps cut costs.
He also advocates for closer integration between marketing and innovation, noting the two are deeply connected.
Sutherland criticises the modern finance-driven culture, which he says has pushed organisations into permanent exploit mode, prioritising efficiency over discovery. He argues that many of marketing’s most valuable insights historically arose from randomness, curiosity and experimentation, yet these qualities are increasingly suppressed.
He also warns that AI adoption is likely to prioritise cost-cutting rather than exploration or customer engagement, further entrenching short-term thinking.
Non-conformity, Sutherland argues, underpins commercial advantage. Businesses often succeed by not doing what everyone else is doing; being the “weird outlier” can be strategically rational.
This is the essence of Sutherland’s “be more puppy” metaphor. Inspired by Wordle strategy, it encourages businesses to act in unexpected, creative ways rather than relying on safe, process-driven logic.
Episode one is hosted by IPA head of marketing and innovation Simon Frazier, who said: “From the very first ‘Making Sense – The Commercial Media Landscape’ publication in 2019, through to our IPA Insight and Planning & Strategy Summits, the core of Making Sense has always been about making complex ideas in media and advertising understandable, relatable and actionable, while keeping it enjoyable. This podcast builds on those principles, offering listeners conversations that are engaging, inclusive and designed to spark curiosity and discovery.”
The series will aim to explore the biggest themes shaping agencies and clients today in the world of media planning and strategy. Episodes will feature voices from across creativity, media, planning, technology and behavioural science.
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