Advertising is filled with characters. Rory Sutherland, vice-chairman of Ogilvy Group UK, is one such character.
Sutherland is loquacious and prolific. He writes a column for The Spectator and, he seems willing to sit for an array of interviews. Hats off to Carina Maggar and One Advisory for capturing this lively conversation.
“Try to be good at two things that are perhaps interconnected,” Sutherland sagely advises. “You have to be very good—with depth—at one thing, but you need to have breadth in a variety of related fields.”
I appreciate his sharing this particular advice. People can be hung up in their specializations. Everyone needs one, as Sutherland says, but how you choose to work your core skill into the larger picture is the trick. Are you a copywriter who also shoots and edits video? Are you an art director who also has a knack for new business presentations? Are you a front-end designer who also knows how to code?
The more you can do, the more you’ll be entrusted/asked to do.
