Growing up, I was that kid who devoured books like other children consumed sweets (well, I also devoured sweets too). My passion for learning weirdly didn’t appear until I finished school. I discovered non-fiction and didn’t look back; absorbing everything from biographies to business memoirs, psychology to philosophy. Somewhere between those countless pages, a dream took root: I wanted to write a book myself. Not just any book, mind you, but something that would actually matter – something original and important enough to justify adding to the world’s already overwhelming pile of published wisdom.
For years, that dream sat dormant. I co-founded Giraffe Social in 2012, threw myself into building an agency, and watched the marketing landscape shift beneath our feet at breakneck speed. But I never found that one idea that felt both genuinely new whilst also being necessary. Until human-first marketing crystallised in my mind, and suddenly I knew I had something worth saying.
The Patterns in the Chaos
The genesis of this book wasn’t a eureka moment – it was more like watching puzzle pieces slowly arrange themselves over several years. As someone who spends their days ‘in the lab’ studying how marketing actually works (rather than how we think it should work), I began noticing recurring patterns that conventional wisdom couldn’t explain.
Influencer marketing exploded seemingly overnight, but why? User-generated content started outperforming polished brand campaigns, but what was driving that shift? Employee advocacy remained a massively untapped opportunity despite its obvious potential. Content featuring actual human faces consistently outperformed faceless brand imagery. These weren’t isolated trends – they were symptoms of something much bigger happening in how people wanted to connect with brands.
The common thread was startlingly simple: people. In an increasingly digital world, consumers were craving authentic human connection more than ever. Yet most marketing strategies were moving in the opposite direction, becoming more automated, more impersonal, more focused on conversion metrics than genuine relationships.
By 2023, these observations had coalesced into a clear philosophy. We repositioned Giraffe as the human-first social agency and began testing these theories with our clients. The results were remarkable – not just in terms of engagement and conversion, but in how differently people responded to brands that prioritised human connection over corporate polish.
The Therapeutic Process of Writing
I began writing the book in 2024, initially as a way to organise the chaos in my own head. Running an agency means you’re constantly absorbing new information, testing different approaches, and trying to make sense of what works and why. Writing became surprisingly therapeutic – it forced me to take all these scattered insights and weave them into one coherent framework.
But I didn’t want to create another marketing book filled with unsubstantiated claims and cherry-picked case studies. Every time I identified something that worked, I dug deeper. I researched the psychological reasoning behind why certain approaches resonated with audiences. I explored the sociological factors that made human connection so crucial in our digital age. I examined the philosophical underpinnings of authentic marketing versus manipulative tactics.
This wasn’t just about saying “do this because it works” – it was about understanding why it works, and therefore how to apply these principles across different contexts and industries.
Confronting Marketing’s Reputation Problem
Let’s address the elephant in the room: marketing has an image problem. Tell someone you work in marketing and watch their face. At best, you’ll get polite indifference. At worst, you’ll get that knowing grimace that says “oh, you’re one of those people.”
The comedian Bill Hicks famously described marketers as “Satan’s little helpers,” and whilst I can appreciate the dark humour, it stings because there’s truth in it. Too much marketing does feel manipulative, exploitative, or simply irrelevant to people’s actual needs and desires.
But here’s what I’ve discovered through years of testing and refinement: marketing doesn’t have to be evil. In fact, when done with genuine care for the people you’re trying to reach, it can be a tremendous force for good. The problem isn’t marketing itself – it’s the tricks, manipulation, and short-term thinking that have dominated the industry for decades.
Human-first marketing represents a fundamental shift away from these tactics. Instead of trying to exploit psychological vulnerabilities or manufacture false urgency, it focuses on providing genuine value and building meaningful relationships. It’s marketing as it should be: one group of humans helping another group of humans discover solutions to their problems.
The AI Opportunity
Writing this book became even more urgent as I watched artificial intelligence reshape the marketing landscape. While everyone was panicking about AI replacing human creativity, I saw something different happening: homogenisation. As more brands adopted AI-generated content, everything started looking and sounding remarkably similar.
This isn’t necessarily AI’s fault – it’s the inevitable result of training algorithms on existing successful content. But it creates an enormous opportunity for brands willing to embrace authenticity and human connection. In a world of AI-generated sameness, genuine human personality becomes the ultimate differentiator.
Human-first marketing isn’t anti-AI – I use AI tools regularly for data analysis and workflow optimisation. But it recognises that as technology becomes more prevalent, the value of authentic human connection increases proportionally. The brands that thrive in the AI era will be those that use technology to enhance their humanity, not replace it.
Beyond the Metrics
One of the most liberating realisations in writing this book was understanding that meaningful engagement matters more than vanity metrics. Yes, we all need to generate results – bills need paying and businesses need growing. But the obsession with immediate, attributable ROI often prevents us from building the kind of long-term relationships that create truly sustainable success.
Human-first marketing is about playing the long game. It’s about creating lifetime customers rather than one-off sales. It’s about turning customers into advocates who promote your brand because they genuinely believe in what you’re doing, not because you’ve manipulated them into a transaction.
Passion and Purpose
Ultimately, I wrote this book because I’m passionate about the potential of human-first marketing to transform how businesses connect with people. I’ve seen it work firsthand – not just in terms of business metrics, but in creating genuine positive impact in people’s lives.
When a brand truly understands and cares about its audience, when it leads with authenticity rather than artifice, when it prioritises connection over conversion – something magical happens. People don’t just buy products; they become part of a community. They don’t just consume content; they engage in meaningful conversations.
This isn’t naive idealism – it’s practical business wisdom backed by real results. The most successful brands of the next decade won’t be those with the biggest budgets or the cleverest tricks. They’ll be the ones that remember marketing is fundamentally about human connection, and act accordingly.
That’s why I wrote this book. Because I believe vehemently that human-first marketing can be a force for good in the world, and because I’ve tested these principles extensively enough to know they work. If even a handful of readers adopt this approach and create more authentic, valuable connections with their audiences, then the years of research, testing, and writing will have been worthwhile.
After all, in a world full of sign-spinners desperately competing for attention, the real opportunity lies in putting down the sign and starting a genuine conversation instead.
Human-First Marketing is available to buy now on Amazon.
Praise for Human First Marketing
“This is a modern marketer’s bible that will you get you thinking and keep you honest.”– Freddie Sassoon, Head of Marketing, The FA
“Phil has proven that human-first marketing isn’t just effective; it’s the way forward. This read isn’t just for those emerging into the industry; it’s for us all.” -Kelly Whybrow, Marketing Communications Lead, Kahoot!
“Finally, a marketing book that cuts through the noise and puts people at the heart of the strategy.” – Robin Waite, Author of Take Your Shot
“This book provides practical advice that is unapologetic. Phil is an important voice for marketing in the present and future.” – Harry Hugo, Co-Founder, The Goat Agency
