GENIUS/STEALS

GENIUS STEALS IS A NOMADIC
STRATEGIC & CREATIVE CONSULTANCY

It's called Genius Steals because we believe ideas are new combinations and that nothing can come from nothing. But copying is lazy. We believe the best way to innovate is to look at the best of that which came before and combine those elements into new solutions. 

Co-Founders Faris & Rosie are award-winning strategists and creative directors, writers, consultants and public speakers who have been living on the road/runway for 9 (!!) years and counting, working with companies all over the world. Our Director of Operations is nomadic like us, our accounting team is based in Washington state, our company is registered in Tennessee, and our collaborators are all over the world. Being nomadic allows us to go wherever clients need us to be, and to be inspired by the world in between.

If you want to know where we are, or where we'll be, your best bet is to subscribe to our newsletter, Strands of Genius, or to check out our public-facing calendar. 

THE FOUNDERS

FARIS YAKob, co-founder 

Faris began his career as a strategy consultant for digital businesses during the first dot com explosion. He moved into the agency world, eventually joining Naked Communications as their 20th employee. Faris worked for Naked in London, Sydney and New York, during their heyday, as a communication strategist and later as global head of digital. 

Faris went on to be EVP Chief Technology Strategist at McCann Erickson NYC, tasked with ushering in their digital transformation, which led to them wining their first ever Cyber Lion at Cannes. Subsequently he was appointed Chief Innovation Officer of MDC Partners, a network of best in breed agencies, including CPB, Anomaly, 72 & Sunny and kbs+.

Deployed within kbs+, he established a social team and developed the social products and services, helped start the content team, and co-founded creative technology boutique Spies&Assassins.

Faris was a founding member of the IPA Social Committee, is on the global advisory board of Social Media Week, and has judged numerous award shows, including the social category for the Effies. He helped the London International Awards to create and define the NEW category to reflect and highlight innovation in the industry. He has been blogging and involved in the ongoing discussions around social in the industry for almost a decade.

He has written about social media and marketing for Campaign, Fast Company, Forbes, Contagious, Canvas8 and Age of Conversation books. He has spoken on social, digital and innovative marketing all over the world and his thesis on the future of brands won the inaugural IPA President’s Prize. 

Faris is the author of Paid Attention, with the second edition released in 2022. He also co-authored The Digital State: How The Internet is Changing Everything [Kogan Page], Eat Your Greens, Creative Superpowers, and What Is A 21st Century Brand.

He speaks about his work at conferences and corporate events around the world.  
                                                 

ROSIE YAKOB, co-founder 

Rosie began her career working with hip hop moguls Jay-Z and Steve Stoute at their entertainment branding company, developing non-traditional ways for brand like Altoids, Target, Wrigley and Samsung to connect with their fans. She joined Cake Group’s newly founded New York office in 2009 where she launched Motorola’s global social media presence and helped brands like Havaianas, Sears and Oppenheimer navigate the world of social and digital media.

In early 2011, Rosie joined Saatchi & Saatchi’s New York office to lead social and emerging media, advising brands including P&G’s Pampers & Olay and General Mills’ Cheerios amongst others. She helped the agency to develop a point of view on social, guiding their own social media presence as well as their internal structure and setup for future projects.

Before co-founding Genius Steals with Faris, Rosie was at 360i, an award-winning digital marketing agency, named by Fast Company as one of the world’s most innovative companies. There she and her team helped brands like Bravo, Dentyne, NBCU and Oreo navigate the world of social and emerging media from creative ideation through to activation.

This included being the lead strategist on the Cannes Grand Prix and Facebook Best in Show winning Oreo Daily Twist campaign, where she developed the strategy and interagency process necessary to deliver fresh creative content every day for 100 days and to ‘win the superbowl’ with the blackout tweet that birthed ‘Real Time Marketing.’

Rosie has written for publications including Fast Company, Digiday & SocialFresh and her presentations on social have been featured on the front page of Slideshare. She is passionate about moving the industry forward and has served on the London International Awards NEW jury, the Jay Chiat Social Media jury, the CLIOs Shadow Jury, and taught at Miami Ad School in addition to speaking at conferences around the world. She believes that brands can create and curate culture, and connect to people in ways that create value for both.

We believe collaboration is the only way to solve problems, and our travels have connected us with some of the most interesting minds out there.

We're always looking for thinkers, doers and people who like to tinker, especially when it comes to brands and how they interact with the world.

HERE'S WHAT WE'VE BEEN UP TO…

BMW Launches Their First Electric Vehicle

Yahoo Featured Faris as one of their selected Futurists. Here's what he had to say:

Oreo's Daily Twist

Back in 2012, Rosie gave this talk Year of the People?, at the Halifax Pop Explosion Conference. Still relevant today? Absolutely.