Kareem Rahma of "Subway Takes" on how brands can tap the creator economy
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Media entrepreneur and creator Kareem Rahma at Axios Communicators Live. Photo: Steven Duarte on behalf of Axios
Brands, executives and public figures are flocking to creators like Kareem Rahma for help reaching younger, digitally native audiences.
Why it matters: Audiences are fragmented and increasingly rely on nontraditional journalists, creators and influencers for news and information.
Catch up quick: Rahma worked in newsrooms at Vice and The New York Times before launching his own media company, Some Friends, with Andrew Kuo.
- "I just had this desire to not email for a living anymore and figured I would not be starting from scratch, because I had this pile of information from working at these big media companies," Rahma told the crowd.
- "I really understood how to build audience, how to build engagement and how to develop content into interesting, specific verticals and formats," he added.
The format he is best known for is the "Subway Takes" series, which has attracted more than 1 million followers across Instagram and TikTok.
- He made headlines for interviewing Democratic candidates Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, and partnering with big brands like Meta, H&M and J.Crew.
What he's saying: The key to attracting brand partners and high-profile guests is the prescriptive format.
- "We're fortunate to have built a format that is really easy to understand. When we thought of it, we were like, let's make something that is scalable and is also really easy to understand from an advertising sponsorship partnership perspective," says Rahma.
- Brands engage through product placement — or a "take" — that involves their brand. Organic takes have also led to more formal partnerships.
- "Our branded content routinely gets the same amount of views as the organic content— sometimes more," he says.
Between the lines: Format is key, but it's also about meeting audiences where they are and serving them something entertaining, Rahma says.
- "It's the only way to deepen the conversation and the engagement with an audience that is bombarded with stuff all the time."
Reality check: With guests like Walz, Rahma acknowledges news and content are different things, but he says mainstream media is partly responsible for blurred lines.
- Through content like listicles and gift guides, "news publications are complicit in the confusion. ... And unfortunately, I think it's up to the audience to try to understand what counts as news and what counts as content but in my opinion, there is a strong need to have both."
What's next: Rahma recently joined LinkedIn and thinks there's a lot of opportunity for vertical videos on the professional networking platform.
