Strands of Genius: Social Media Death Spiral, The Intangibles, Consumer Debt Woes
Plus: illustration and reflection
Strands of Genius is a newsletter from the co-founders of Genius Steals, Faris & Rosie Yakob. They are award-winning strategists, facilitators, creative directors, writers and public speakers who get excited about working with smart people on interesting challenges. You should probably go ahead and hit reply so we can collaborate on something together :)
:: THE UPDATE ::
Morning sunshine, how’s it going? Rosie is in Mexico for a retreat with Ladies Who Strategize, and I am emerging from goblin mode now the rain has finally stopped here in Chattsville. Everything feels better when the sun is shining, doesn’t it?!
We’re always looking for smart folks to highlight with our guest curators program, so if you have someone you’d like to hear from, hit reply and let us know! (And yes, you’re absolutely welcome to nominate yourself.)
There’s no elaborate application process, we’re just looking for a few sentences as to why this person could be a good fit, and some kind of link (LinkedIn, Instagram, etc) or email so that we can get can get in touch if we do want to invite them (you?!) to participate.
:: A HEART WARMING TAKE ON BRAND LOVE ::
Our theme for February is Brand Love.
[i don’t want to get on a rant here but]
What I keep wondering is whether brands love us anymore.
Whether it’s social media, as discussed below, or companies generally abandonning any vague tokenistic commitments to diversity, ever more extractive dark patterns, junk fees, buying media without proper care to what it is funding, customer service everywhere being how it is, paying employees decent wages, union busting, capitulating in advance to creeping authoritarianism with ‘donations’ (not really creeping anymore though is it), having to install an app to run anything so they can eat your data, it’s hard to see where companies are doing things to make life better for people, regardless of what the advertising sometimes claims. Yes, the function of consumer or business products is to solve needs that people have, that makes life better. But the warm, glowing, warming glow of brand love promises that advertising has been used to inculcate for generations seems increasingly hollow in light of what feels like increasingly extractive interactions.
Or is it just me?
Let me know.
:: THE LINKS ::
SOCIAL MEDIA DEATH SPIRAL
Social media is undergoing massive changes across the board. “Underlying all this upheaval is the fact that major social media apps just aren’t fun any more. More often than not, their algorithms serve up a torrent of nonsensical, AI-generated slop, boring engagement posts, violent fight videos, porn bots, and right-wing rants. (And that isn’t just a reflection of users’ morbid interests; this content is disproportionately amplified, pretty much across the board.)…
All of this seems to confirm a suspicion that many of us have held for a long time: social media is broken…At the same time, simply logging off is not a satisfactory solution.” [Rosie here - This is part of why I’ve started spending more time on Marco Polo than on Instagram. I get to connect with the people I love and care about, in asynchronous video chat, without the rest of the content. It’s been the only social media app that I find really serves me — ahem, my needs — rather than simply serving me ads and content that leaves me feeling riled up.] (Dazed)
THE INTANGIBLES
Our good friends have come out of stealth mode with the announcement of The Intangibles. They have an incredible bench of senior, respected talent and work with others. We have partnered with them on a number of projects. “There was another partner holding influence over the brand strategy, all behind the scenes. The Intangibles—which some might call the Avengers of marketing—is a marketing powerhouse that has largely operated in the shadows until now.
CONSUMER DEBT WOBBLES
As Faris observed in 2023, the remarkable resilience of standard economic indicators in the USA especially, the absence of a heavily predicted recession seemed to be a function of pent up pando spend and a certain understanding from many that buying a house will be forever out of reach. Yolo spending on consumer goods, travel, alcohol all grew over the last few years, but much of it was paid for with credit cards. Food prices continue to rise, and consumers are starting to show signs of struggle.
Why it matters: Those figures complicate the notion that the consumer is relatively healthy, a warning sign for the broader economy.
The number of credit card holders making only minimum payments on their bills has jumped to a 12-year high, a study by the Philadelphia Federal Reserve found.
The number of 30+ day delinquencies also rose during this period, up to 3.52%. That's double the delinquency rate of 1.57% from the pandemic low in the second quarter of 2021.
In the month of December 2022, 0.75% of all outstanding vehicle loans were assigned to repossession – a 22.5% increase from December 2019.
"Supply chain shocks and higher interest rates drove up costs to purchase and finance a car," said CFPB Director Rohit Chopra in the report, suggesting cars are becoming harder to afford for more people. (Axios)
:: ILLUSTRATION ::
Before photography, advertising relied on illustration (hand drawn art). Andy Warhol got his start illustrating ads, for women shoes most famously.
With all the nonsense and weak tea takes on Liquid Death cutting distribution to the UK (tl:dr distribution matters more than ads) I loved this hand painted image from the multi-media artist Claire Salvo.
This week, we’re writing to you from Chattanooga, TN. We’re especially thankful for:
the storm not knocking out the power, What We Do in The Shadows, Arrested Development, the crew with Rosie in Mexico, Mel, not doctors, not medicine from said doctors that made me have absurdly high blood pressure, orzo, Bww, trivia, and sending love to the families of a couple acquaintances from the industry who both recently passed aged 46. My old boss, the founder of Naked, died at 46. I’m 46. Take care of yourselves and your elves.
If we can ever be of help to you, even outside of a formal engagement, please don’t hesitate to let us know. You can hit reply to this email if you’ve got anything to say, and we’ll endeavor to get back to you promptly!
rockON,
faris & rosie | your friends over at geniussteals.co
(still want more? @faris is still “tweeting” while @rosieyakob prefers instagram stories)
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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 since March 2013, working with companies all over the world. We have a distributed team ourselves, an accounting team is based in Tennessee where our company is registered, our admin extraordinaire is based in Playa del Carmen, 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.
Hit reply and let’s talk about how we might be able to work together :)
Re: Or is it just me?
No, unfortunately not