Reckitt's cold and flu relief brand Mucinex has grown sales from new consumers by 81% and found an additional $2 million in demand by leveraging data from Kinsa smart thermometers to precision-forecast when and where seasonal outbreaks will occur. "We urge our industry to not rely on instincts, especially after an anomaly of a year we just had, and use all tools available to gain the necessary insight to optimize supply chain, meet demand and help keep communities safe and healthy," said Sumie Mahbubani, business insights lead for upper respiratory, Reckitt.

Levi Strauss & Co. will upgrade its e-commerce site with visual search technology and computer vision functions that further personalize the online shopping experience, executive Louis DiCesari said. "The computer vision allows us to learn from pictures, and better link our family of products and how they relate to each other," DiCesari said.

Abercrombie & Fitch's Hollister brand has appointed 18-year-old Fortnite world champion and Twitch star Kyle "Bugha" Giersdorf as its "chief gaming scout." Bugha's first work for the brand includes the creation of a sweatpants and hoodie set designed specifically for gamers and leading Team Hollister, a training program for Twitch streamers.

Crockpot is marking its 50th anniversary and showcasing its new Design Series by auctioning a nonfungible token, which takes the form of an animated GIF showing different Crockpot designs. Proceeds from the NFT's sale will be included in the brand's Hunger Action Month donation to Feeding America.

Kraft Heinz's plans to use 100% compostable, reusable or recyclable packaging by 2025 will include introducing a fully circular PET ketchup bottle in Europe next year. Other initiatives, such as developing fully recyclable and compostable Maxwell House coffee pods in Canada, prove Kraft Heinz is "committed to holding ourselves to a higher standard," said CEO Miguel Patricio.

Many brands are finding benefits in targeting customers offline with direct mail to cultivate relationships with a focus on small-batch efforts to circumvent challenges such as rising postal rates and paper and ink shortages, writes Tara Weiss. "We have the opportunity to think about how to market our products to an entire household... all in one piece of collateral," said Thinx Director of Retention Marketing Rose Crosby.

A BetterBriefs Project report from Flood + Partners and Australian strategists Matt Davies and Pieter-Paul von Weiler reveals 80% of marketers believe they produce good briefs, while just 10% of creative agencies concur. "My hope is that the shock and awe of this report will create a period of pronounced introspection whereby both marketers and agencies can drop their egos and have real and undoubtedly hard conversations about where and why it is all going wrong," says Jason Lonsdale, chief strategy officer of Deutsch Los Angeles.

Forbes Business Council members offer 10 pointers to help brands use QR codes to their full potential. Executives point to the difference in QR code adoption among younger and older consumers, the value in tying a physical product to a digital experience and using colors, patterns, logo integration and other customization tools to ensure they stand out.

Brands should diversify their social media spending to avoid problems such as Facebook's recent outage to reach internet users who average 8.6 social media accounts and who spend 66% of their online time away from Amazon, Facebook and Google, says Mediassociates' Jesse Rosenschein. Suggestions include aligning event-based goals with platforms like Snapchat which seeks to capitalize on "real-time moments," and activating pixels and conversion APIs with a feedback loop on sites to gain insight into audience movement.

Marketing teams, along with their budgets, need to be agile, able to turn on a dime and adjust their spending weekly, daily and sometimes even hourly to address market conditions and opportunities. However, many marketing leaders are making do with highly manual, labor-intensive solutions and systems that are long on spreadsheets, short on automation and require as much as a month or more to effect budget changes. PUT AWAY THE SPREADSHEETS.

Last year, the Reporters Without Borders Germany campaign "The Uncensored Library," created by MediaMonks and DDB Germany, took top honors at the ANA REGGIE Awards for using Minecraft to overcome strict censorship laws and generate interest among young people about press freedom.

This year, the 39th annual ANA REGGIE Awards is once again looking for such examples of inspirational excellence and best-in-class brand activation campaigns across 23 categories from both internal and external agencies, corporate marketing teams, media firms and marketing solutions providers. IS IT YOUR TURN?