Tyler Farnsworth on Why Human-First Storytelling Still Wins

Editor’s Note: 
This article is part of a Digital Summit Collective series where we’re turning standout live sessions from recent Digital Summit events into actionable, on-demand insights for our community. Each piece is adapted from a real stage presentation—capturing the ideas, examples, and strategic thinking that resonated most with attendees. 

Marketing has never been louder—or more forgettable. 

At Digital Summit Denver, Tyler Farnsworth made a pointed observation: in a world where AI can generate infinite content, most brands are producing more—but connecting less. Feeds are flooded with polished posts, automated comments, and perfectly optimized messages that all sound the same. 

The result is what Farnsworth calls a “sea of sameness.” And it’s exactly why human-first storytelling matters more than ever. 

To explain how brands can cut through, Farnsworth turned to something far older than algorithms or platforms: the campfire. 

The Campfire Test 

Before social media, before advertising, before mass communication, people gathered around fires to share stories—what they learned, what they feared, how they survived. 

That’s where Farnsworth begins. And it leads to a simple but uncomfortable question: 

If people were sitting around a campfire talking about your brand, would anyone lean in, or would they tune out? 

That’s the campfire test. If a story isn’t human, magnetic, and worth retelling, it won’t survive today—no matter how frequently it’s posted. 

Why AI Is Exposing Weak Stories 

Farnsworth isn’t anti-AI. He compares today’s moment to the early internet era, when brands uploaded brochures to websites and called it innovation. The tool wasn’t the problem—the thinking was. 

Right now, many brands are using AI to scale output without improving the substance. The result is content that feels automated, impersonal, and instantly forgettable. 

AI-generated posts respond to AI-generated comments. Outreach sounds efficient, but empty. In that environment, Farnsworth argues that volume is not a strategy. Humanity is. 

The brands that stand out won’t be the ones publishing the most—they’ll be the ones telling stories people actually care about. 

How Stories Catch Fire

To make storytelling actionable, Farnsworth breaks it down using the literal elements of starting a fire. Each maps directly to a core marketing principle. 

1. Spark: Gain Emotional Insight                                                                                             
   
   Farnsworth argues that effective storytelling doesn’t start with what a brand sells, but with the emotional tension its audience is already living with. Before a customer ever encounters your product, they’re often navigating overwhelm, frustration, or fear of falling behind — and if a brand can’t clearly name that experience, no amount of content or creativity will make the story resonate. 
   
   
2. Tinder: Create The Hook
   
   Farnsworth explains that once a brand understands the emotional tension its audience is already experiencing, it still has to earn attention by communicating that insight clearly and distinctly. If the story looks and sounds like everything else in the feed, even a meaningful message will be ignored before it has a chance to land. 
   
   
3. Kindling: Develop Strategy and Structure
   
   He emphasizes that attention alone isn’t enough — without a clear point of view and narrative structure, stories lose momentum quickly and fail to build recognition or trust over time. Strong storytelling works when audiences can understand what a brand stands for and recognize its voice from one interaction to the next. 
   
   
4. Oxygen: Drive Participation
   
   Farnsworth echoes that storytelling becomes powerful when audiences are invited into the conversation rather than treated as passive observers. Stories spread when people feel seen, involved, or compelled to respond, because connection is built through interaction, not broadcasting. 
   
   
5. Fuel: Build Consistency
   
   Finally, he stresses that storytelling only creates impact when brands commit to showing up consistently over time. A single campaign or post may generate attention, but sustained belief is built through repetition, reliability, and a clear perspective that audiences come to expect and trust. 

Standing Out Doesn’t Require Permission 

One of Farnsworth’s most resonant points is that most brands already know they need to stand out—they’re just afraid to do it. 

Legal hesitates. Budgets tighten. Legacy thinking wins. 

But standing out doesn’t require more money. It requires clarity and courage. Brands that endure don’t try to appeal to everyone. They understand who they’re for, what they believe, and why anyone should care. 

People don’t rally around products. They rally around points of view. 

 Start the Fire 

Farnsworth closed with a reminder that feels especially relevant now: 

In a world drowning in content, what people crave isn’t more noise—it’s something real. Something human. Something worth repeating. 

If your brand story were told around a campfire, would anyone lean in? 

The brands that win won’t be the loudest. They’ll be the ones brave enough to start a fire. 

Watch the Full Session 

This article was adapted from the live session Start a Fire: Delivering Human-First Storytelling in an AI World, presented by Tyler Farnsworth at Digital Summit Denver. 

Watch the full video: 
https://resource.digitalsummit.com/resources/material/start-a-fire-den25/