Faris Yakob

Ontario

Founder of Genius Steals and Contributor at Freelance

Hello! I'm Faris. I'm looking for the awesome. Founder/Genius Steals. Nomadic strategist/speaker. Author/Paid Attention. Husband/@rosieyakob.

Articles

Sorry, BuzzFeed. Nice platforms finish last

Feb 13, 2025 | mediacat.uk | Natasha Randhawa |James Swift |Geoffrey Colon |Faris Yakob

BuzzFeed is fighting ‘toxic’ AI-driven social media with a platform of its own. The company’s latest experiment, tentatively referred to as BF Island, promises a refuge from the algorithmic chaos of X, Instagram and TikTok. In a blog post on Tuesday, CEO and co-founder Jonah Peretti framed the platform as a response to ‘growing discontent’ with what he calls SNARF:‘Content creators exaggerate stakes to make their content urgent and existential.
Spotify ‘on the ball’ with ad tech and eyeing video

Feb 5, 2025 | mediacat.uk | Mike Piggott |Faris Yakob |Louise Antoniou |Natasha Randhawa

Spotify’s decision to build a programmatic tech stack is the reason advertisers aren’t flocking to the platform, according to the company’s chief financial officer. Christian Luiga addressed Spotify’s disappointing advertising growth during the company’s Q4 earnings call on 4 February. Moving into programmatic ‘takes time’, said Luiga. He added that Spotify was ‘on the ball now’, and that 2025 will be the year it builds its offering, and 2026 will be when it achieves scale.
2025: predictions versus reality

Feb 5, 2025 | mediacat.uk | Chris Kenji Beer |Mike Piggott |Faris Yakob |Svilena Keane

2025 will be a big year. Over the next 11 months you can expect autonomous cars to take your kids to school, women to start wearing one-piece hygienic suits (and move from human to silicon partners), tobacco smoking to vanish, and the very concept of currency, schools, and the internal combustion engine to disappear. Or… maybe not. As you’ve no doubt realised, these are past predictions about the year 2025 AD, and while the year is still young, none of them seem likely to transpire.
'What the f**k is a creative director doing in media?'

Feb 3, 2025 | mediacat.uk | Mike Piggott |Faris Yakob |Svilena Keane |Natasha Randhawa

Over the past twenty-three years, Nick Wright has built a name for himself with a unique blend of creative, marketing and media positions, and a focus on gaming, film and TV, culture and the live arts. He spent over five years driving the business as a partner at Amplify before joining Havas in 2013. Since then, he’s worked at Havas Entertainment, Havas Media Group and the Network, in roles spanning strategy, creative and growth.
Meta promises more AI as ad prices rise 14%

Jan 30, 2025 | mediacat.uk | James Swift |Faris Yakob |Svilena Keane |Nazli Selin Ozkan

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg promised analysts on Wednesday that his company would spend ‘hundreds of billions of dollars’ on AI infrastructure, and would fund the expenditure by putting those technological advances to work in advertising products.
Party of one - MediaCat UK

Jan 30, 2025 | mediacat.uk | Faris Yakob |James Swift |Svilena Keane |Nazli Selin Ozkan

Do you know what song was the UK Christmas number one? No one (in the UK) that I asked while writing this did. When I was young, in the beforetimes of mass media, Top of the Pops was a cultural barometer. It was the world’s longest running weekly music show, until it got cancelled because it had come to its ‘natural conclusion’, according to the BBC’s director of television. The charts tell us what other people like, a form of social proof, leading others to discover it.
The sound of brands

Dec 23, 2024 | mediacat.uk | Faris Yakob

When the brand unveiled their new sonic branding earlier this year with something like that, I must confess the question had never really occurred to me. We are all of course familiar with the most famous examples of sonic branding like Intel’s five note ‘bong’ and I believe in the power of music to associate brands with emotion and jingles to lodge them in the memory.
The sound of brands

Dec 12, 2024 | mediacatmagazine.co.uk | Faris Yakob

When the brand unveiled their new sonic branding earlier this year with something like that, I must confess the question had never really occurred to me. We are all of course familiar with the most famous examples of sonic branding like Intel’s five note ‘bong’ and I believe in the power of music to associate brands with emotion and jingles to lodge them in the memory.
Subject to seasonality

Oct 28, 2024 | mediacatmagazine.co.uk | Faris Yakob |Emma Saddleton |Sam Fowler

With the US election just around the corner, ghouls are gurning with gusto. Many fictional ones will be shilling for brands of all sorts. I’m sure there will be plenty of roundups of hilarious Halloweening from marketers so I don’t need to do that — let’s consider it more broadly. Halloween is now definitely a thing in the UK. It didn’t seem to be back when I lived there, but it definitely is now.
Strands of Genius: Stop. Breathe. We can't Keep Working Like This, Being Glued To Smartphones Can Curb Creativity, Ten Teasons Why Creatives Should Start Working With A Pen And Paper

Sep 12, 2024 | geniussteals.substack.com | Faris Yakob |Genius Steals.co

Each year we aim to highlight 50 creative thinkers that have inspired us by giving them the opportunity to guest curate this newsletter, Strands of Genius. This edition is guest curated by John Long, SVP, Creative @ Digitas. LOCATION: New YorkHello! I'm John Long. I'm a New York-based ECD/writer, and was lucky to meet Faris on the Twitter machine before the Muskopalypse.