Rory Sutherland, Vice President of Ogilvy U.K and President of the I.P.A, spoke at yesterday morning’s launch of the 2010 ADFX Awards in the beautiful surroundings of The National Gallery.

In keeping with the theme of these awards, behavioural economics was his topic of focus. How can human understanding be turned into revenue? Advertising hasn’t escaped economics’ increased influence. In an age where everything goes through a process of rationalisation, where media plans and budgets are being reduced, targeting moments as opposed to demography is fast replacing the traditional media selection model. In this new setting, advertising is becoming increasingly contextual, an audience’s frame of mind must now be taken into account.

A keen understanding of human behaviour has never been more relevant and yet market research rarely, if ever, reaches board level.

On that note, Rory Sutherland emphasised the need for marketers to educate themselves as to the nature of behavioural economics and to this end IAPI’s 2010 ADFX should produce some interesting entries.