Available for new projects
The philosopher marketer — where rigorous strategic thinking meets the art of making ideas land.
001 — About
Strategy rooted in how people actually think.
I'm Chris Wilkie — a marketer who takes ideas seriously. My work sits at the intersection of strategic rigour and philosophical curiosity: the belief that truly effective marketing begins not with tactics, but with first principles.
I've spent my career building brands, shaping narratives, and helping organisations articulate what they actually stand for — not just what they sell. That means uncomfortable questions, deep listening, and an unusual amount of reading for someone in a commercial field.
I'm based in Edinburgh. I work with teams who want their marketing to mean something.
002 — Career
Head of Marketing / Senior Strategist
Add a sentence or two about your current role — what you own, what you've changed, and what kind of thinking you bring to the work. Keep it specific and outcomes-focused.
Marketing Manager
Describe the scope of this role — team size, budget, channels, or key projects you led. One or two sentences is enough; let the achievements section carry the numbers.
Strategist / Consultant
Earlier career context — where you started, what you learnt, and how it shaped the way you work now. Formative roles often say more about someone than senior ones.
003 — Achievements
01 / Impact
Campaign or project name
Describe the brief, the idea, and what made it work. Frame it around the problem you solved rather than the output you produced.
+42%
02 / Brand
Brand repositioning or launch
What did you inherit, what did you change, and what was the measurable outcome? Specificity is credibility here.
£2.4M
03 / Thought leadership
Speaking, writing, or publication
Any conferences, keynotes, articles, or editorial work that demonstrates your ideas having reach beyond your day job.
12K readers
04 / Team
Building or scaling a team
Leadership achievements — hiring, developing people, building a function from scratch, or turning around an underperforming team.
×3 growth
004 — Philosophy
Most marketing fails not because of poor execution, but because of unexamined assumptions. Teams optimise confidently toward goals they've never questioned. Strategy documents describe the world as it is hoped to be rather than as it is. I find this interesting rather than frustrating — it's a solvable problem, and the solution is philosophical before it's tactical.
The philosopher's toolkit — asking what we mean, questioning what we assume, distinguishing between what we know and what we believe — turns out to be extraordinarily useful in commercial contexts. Positioning, audience understanding, narrative coherence: these are epistemological challenges dressed in marketing language.
01
Clarity precedes creativity
A well-sharpened brief produces better work than any mood board. Get the thinking right first.
02
Audiences think, not just feel
People are rational actors in complex environments. Respect that and your messaging will too.
03
Meaning before metrics
Numbers measure what happened. They rarely explain why. Start with understanding.
005 — Contact
I'm open to interesting briefs, senior in-house roles, and conversations that don't have a clear agenda yet.
hello@chriswilkie.com