Mark Earls

Specialist Speaker Mark Earls is HERDmeister, pioneering and award-winning writer and consultant on human behaviour, contemporary communications and behaviour change. Mark’s insights on how and why we choose to behave as we do are as relevant for voting decisions, states of happiness and satisfaction, or attitudes to climate change, as they are to consumer choices and everyday shopping. Much of the most pioneering work in behavioural economics has been developed between Mark Earls and Rory Sutherland, another legendary international creative figure.

Mark ran major departments in ad agencies both large and small, from St Luke’s to Ogilvy’s. Today he is a best-selling writer and a keynote and conference speaker whose award-winning work applies contemporary behavioural and cognitive science to the business of business and politics. Mark’s work has always challenged ideas on human behaviour and decision-making that today’s leaders and policy makers take for granted. He communicates in trenchant and practical terms (e.g.”a ‘we-species’ suffering the illusion of ‘I'” or “the space we need to worry about is the space between people not the space between their ears”). Mark’s latest projects all pull focus on how we think about time: how we can make good decisions in uncertain times, how we can avoid being blindsided (by pandemics and wars and structural changes to our markets), how we can escape unhelpful stories from our past and choose better, and how we can – literally – develop ‘memories of the future’.

His previous books include Welcome to the Creative Age, HERD, I’ll Have What She’s Having (with Professors Alex Bentley and Mike O’Brien) and CopyCopyCopy. He has written for many magazines and newspapers and appeared on TV and radio around the world. Mark’s keynotes are always high engagement, high energy high entertaining experiences which enthuse the audience with insight and practical action. Elvis, Monty Python, football crowds and the heuristics of the urinal are all memorable examples of what to expect.

Mark Earls has worked with organisations as diverse as Channel 4, Bacardi Martini, Royal Mail, Bart’s Hospital and Experian. He’s spoken, in locations as diverse as Shanghai, New York, Atlanta, Stockholm, Cannes, Amsterdam, Berlin, Bournemouth and in his home town of London.

In addition, he is heavily involved in training the next generation of marketing, insight and creative professionals. He teaches on the IPA Excellence Diploma, the Marketing Society’s new Be Bold professional development programme, and the 4As strategy conference.

Mark is a Fellow of The UK Marketing Society and the RSA, he’s an Honorary Fellow of the IPA, and an ambassador of The School of Life. But mostly, he would rather be fishing or watching cricket.

And, of course, Mark is famously a big fan of David Bowie – ‘a man who repeatedly transformed music and fashion by playing with stuff he found’.

Specialist Speakers is delighted to sponsor and present Mark Earls at the Chartered Institute of Public Relations Annual Conference at London County Hall on 21st November 2024. Theme for the day is ‘Changing Politics – The Impact on Communications’. Contact Mark Earls via a Specialist Speakers agent for speaking and presentation on 01455 633289.