'A breakthrough book. Wonderfully applicable to everything in life, and funny as hell.' Nassim Nicholas Taleb Why is Red Bull so popular - even though everyone hates the taste? Why do countdown boards on platforms take away the pain of train delays? And why do we prefer stripy toothpaste? Discover the alchemy behind original thinking, as TED Talk superstar and Ogilvy advertising legend Rory Sutherland reveals why abandoning logic and casting aside rationality is the best way to solve any problem. In his first book he blends cutting-edge behavioural science, jaw-dropping stories and a touch of branding magic on his mission to turn us all into idea alchemists. He shows how economists, businesses and governments have got it all wrong: we are not rational creatures who make logical decisions based on evidence. Instead, the big problems we face every day, whether as an individual or in society, could very well be solved by thinking less logically. To be brilliant, you have to be irrational.

Engineers plan transport systems, people use them. But the ways in which an engineer measures success - speed, journey time, efficiency - are often not the way that passengers think about a good trip. We are not cargo. We choose how and when to travel, influenced not only by speed and time but by habit, status, comfort, variety - and many other factors that engineering equations don't capture at all. As we near the practical, physical limits of speed, capacity and punctuality, the greatest hope for a brighter future lies in adapting transport to more human wants and needs. Behavioural science has immense potential to improve the design of roads, railways, planes and pavements - as well as the ways in which we use them - but only when we embrace the messier reality of transport for humans. This is the moment. Climate change, the coronavirus pandemic and changing work-life priorities have shaken up long-held assumptions. There is a new way forward. This book maps out how to design transport for humans.

How can marketers navigate the growing array of marketing specialties, media options, and data sources? How can they provide consumers with seamless experiences of value across channels that overcome behavioral barriers and actually deliver results? In The Activation Imperative, William Rosen and Laurence Minsky provide a straightforward guide for marketers to move beyond building brands to activating them-from simply projecting what a brand is to optimizing what it does-to move people closer to transaction. Drawing on years of research and experience with the world's most sophisticated brands, Rosen and Minsky share a unifying cross-discipline marketing approach designed to impact critical behaviors and more effectively drive business results. With actionable advice and best-in-class examples, Rosen and Minsky offer marketers a road map to manage today's increasingly fragmented marketing landscape to more efficiently build their brands and their business.

How can marketers navigate the growing array of marketing specialties, multiplying media options and data sources, and increasing content saturation to improve effectiveness and return on investment? How can they provide consumers with seamless experiences of value across channels that overcome behavioral barriers and actually deliver results? In The Activation Imperative, William Rosen and Laurence Minsky provide a straightforward guide for marketers to move beyond building brands to activating them-from simply projecting what a brand is to optimizing what it does-to move people closer to transaction. Drawing on years of research and experience with the world's most sophisticated brands, Rosen and Minsky share a unifying cross-discipline marketing approach designed to impact critical behaviors and more effectively drive business results. They reveal how today's more personalized and trackable communications illuminate tremendous diversity in paths-to-purchase and explain how to leverage this data to develop more effective strategies and creative targeted to individual inflection points. With actionable advice and best-in-class examples, Rosen and Minsky offer marketers a road map to manage today's increasingly fragmented marketing landscape to more effectively and efficiently build brands and business.