In 2012 Phil Treagus-Evans and his friend Kane Lodge were 22 and building a social network. It failed. What they had by then, without planning it, was Giraffe Social, a social media agency that is now fourteen years old.
We asked Phil how it happened, what he would do differently, and where he thinks agencies are heading. Giraffe Social is listed on AgencyIndex, and Phil is also the author of Human-First Marketing.
Take us back to 2012. Why did you set up Giraffe Social, and what were you trying to do differently?
Honestly, we didn't even set out to start an agency. We probably didn't even know what an 'agency' was. In 2012, my friend Kane and I were 22 and trying to build a social network. It failed. But while we were building it, we'd been running its social media, and we'd got quite good at it. Friends and family asked us to do the same for them. Then someone offered to pay. Then someone else did. It spiralled out of control, in the best way, and at some point we looked up and realised we'd accidentally started a social media agency.
So the "doing it differently" bit came later than the question suggests. What we did have was an outsider's view. We hadn't come up through agencies, so we didn't know the rules we were supposed to follow. We learned by doing, making mistakes and asking questions.
How did you win your first clients?
The unglamorous answer: friends and family. Nobody was going to hand two 22-year-olds with a failed start-up their brand, so we started with people who already trusted us as people.
That turned out to be the whole lesson. Our first clients weren't buying a service. They were backing us. We approached local businesses, charged very little and worked ridiculous hours. It wasn't glamorous.
After the first few, we began investing a lot of our time into an SEO strategy that would set us up for literally more than a decade of strong search positions for our target keywords. This allowed us to build a strong inbound stream of leads to speak with each month.
What's the biggest lesson from the early days, maybe one you learned the hard way?
We would have grown faster and avoided more errors if we had been less insular and spent more time building relationships with other agency owners. The most important, single piece of advice I can give a young entrepreneur is to find people who have done what you're trying to do, who are a few years ahead, and become their best friend.
It's like someone turning the lights on. You can suddenly see where you're going and dodge obstacles along the way. We were overly guarded about speaking to other agencies as we viewed them as competition. In hindsight, that was foolish and didn't serve us. It changed when some agencies started contacting us about partnering. It was a real lesson, and I've done my best to pass it on to others over the years.
We were overly guarded about speaking to other agencies as we viewed them as competition. In hindsight, that was foolish and didn't serve us.
What was the turning point, when you knew it was really working?
I don't think there was a single moment, but rather a series of 'a-ha' moments. If I had to pick one that stands out, where it felt like it was really starting to take off, it would be our first website redesign.
When we launched, Giraffe was our backup plan, so we threw a template site up that looked like every other agency's website. It was gross. But we just needed a placeholder. When we decided to redesign into a fancy new WordPress site with a clearer idea of our brand and audience, leads started coming in much faster. We went from maybe 3 or 4 enquiries a month to 15-20. It was mad. It taught us early on how important a strong brand and an effective website are.
What do you put your success down to?
Three things, and none of them are clever.
First, Kane. Starting a business with a long-term friend is supposed to be a terrible idea. For us it's been the opposite. I'm the ideas and the vision; he's the numbers and the operational sense to stop the ideas running off a cliff. Fourteen years in, we still tell each other the truth, and that's rarer than it should be.
Second, the team. Agencies are just people. Clients stay with us because of the person they talk to every week, not because of a deck. We've been lucky to have amazing team members over the years who care about the work as much as we do.
Third, an unhealthy relationship with work. This one's a bit more personal, and it's not one I recommend. I'm not a fan of 'hustle culture', but I am a relentless worker. When I have an idea that can help the agency grow or be better, I can't put it down until it's done. In some ways, that has benefited the agency; in others, it's something I've had to learn to manage.
Which piece of work or client win are you proudest of?
I think more recently, I'm exceptionally proud of the work we do with Kahoot!. They are an enormous brand with an inspiring mission, and the team adore working with them. When they were looking for an agency, I know they spoke to many, so winning the opportunity was a real moment for us. Since then, it sounds cliché, but it really feels like we're now well and truly part of their team. We have an amazing relationship; we understand the intricacies of their brand and can support them across a wide range of areas. It's an incredibly rewarding relationship, and one that we cherish.
You describe Giraffe as human-first. What does that mean now that AI is part of how agencies work and how clients find them?
It matters more, not less.
AI has made content almost free to produce. Anyone can generate a month of posts before lunch. The result is a feed full of things that are, by definition, average, competent, and completely forgettable. When everyone can sound the same, sounding like a real person is the only advantage left.
So human-first isn't anti-AI. We use it, as everyone does, for the jobs it's good at. But the thing that makes people stop scrolling, trust a brand and remember it is still a person. A real expert with a real opinion. A team you can see. A story only that business can tell. AI can help you make more. It can't make you matter.
The "how clients find us" part is the bit I find fascinating. This year we've had many new enquiries tell us they'd found us by asking ChatGPT. That changes the game for agencies. You can't buy your way into an AI's answer the way you can buy an ad. It recommends you based on what the internet says about you: your reputation, your work, what other people write. Which is a very modern way of arriving at a very old truth. The way to be found is to be worth talking about.
AI can help you make more. It can't make you matter.
What's next for Giraffe Social?
Getting sharper about who we're for.
In our early days, like most agencies, we would say yes to almost anyone with a budget. Now we're much clearer. We work best with established brands in serious, stable sectors: healthcare, finance, property, education, technology, professional services. Businesses that see social as long-term brand building, not a quick hit. This is where we feel human-first has the biggest impact, using social media to build trust and perceived expertise.
The second thing is putting our people front and centre, in the same way we tell clients to. Clients don't hire an agency; they hire the people in it. So you'll continue to see more of our team, their thinking and their work. It's worth celebrating.
And personally, my second book, Pinball, is due out next year. It's another attempt to ask why we do marketing the way we do, and whether it actually works.
Where do you think agencies are heading over the next five years?
Smaller, more senior, and judged on taste.
I think the lower end of the market is already falling away. For smaller organisations, where keeping costs low is the number one priority, they will switch to churning out stuff with AI. It won't work, but it also won't cost them much.
What's left is the bit that was always the real job. Knowing what to say, who to say it to, and what not to say at all. Taste. Strategy. Relationships. The ability to sit with a client and tell them something they don't want to hear. None of that gets cheaper with technology.
I think we'll see fewer big generalist agencies and more small, specialist teams of genuinely experienced people. Clients will pay for thinking and trust, not output.
The other shift is in how agencies get discovered. More buyers are asking AI for recommendations rather than searching, so reputation is becoming the marketing. What clients say about you, what you've published, and whether you have a point of view worth quoting all matter. The agencies that win will be the ones with something to say.
What would you tell someone thinking of starting an agency today?
Start before it makes sense. We had no plan, just a failed social network and a few friends who needed help. If we'd waited until it looked like a proper business, we would never have started.
Decide what you won't do. Saying yes to everything can feel safe, but it keeps you average. The sooner you know who you're for, the sooner the right clients can find you. It took us years to learn that. Trying to do everything for everyone is a one-way road to mediocrity.
And build it to run without you from day one. Write things down. Hire people who are better than you at the things you're not good at, then let them do it. The goal isn't to be the busiest person in the business; it's to build something that's still standing on the days you're not.
Interview from October 2026, lightly edited.