The Fast Company magazine presents its new rating of the 50 most innovative companies in the world. In mid-February, they published the 2011 list, giving short descriptions to their picks. Apple scoops first place, pushing the digital giants Twitter, Facebook and Google to the 2nd, 3rd and 6th place correspondingly—with Intel, Microsoft, Linkedin,eBay, IBM and Cisco resting below them. The sport and fashion apparel industry is presented by Burberry (No.13, “for breathing new life into a luxury stronghold”), Nike (No.23, “for its mix of sports, style, and yes, plastic bottles”), Opening Ceremony (No. 28) the food and drinks business has two representatives—PepsiCo (No.33)—“for its ambitious nutrition R&D” and chocolate company Madécasse (No.50).

Eat the city, drink the city, wear the city. Is it possible? With brands, there’s nothing beyond the bound of reality. The second part of our Brands and the City review is championing brand’s editions dedicated to metropolitan areas and smaller locations around the globe. Vodka, soft drinks, travel guides from luxury makers, burgers, accessories, coffee products, sneakers and a range of other goods, which pay tribute to various destinations, are now in the spotlight.

From time to time, brands invite their consumers to assist them in developing new products—as a rule, fans create package or apparel designs, commercials or even flavours of drinks, while naming usually remains in the domain of the brand’s creative team. adidas UK decided to step further and is now offering football fans a life-time chance to give a name to the official matchball of the London 2012 Olympic Games. Quite a bold step since the ball is not only the brand’s product, but a part of the international sports history as well.

It’s not every day that five icons from the candy world decide to drop everything and venture to the Great White North, but their bags are packed, and they’re ready to go. Over the next ten months, Canadians are invited to join M&M’S® Spokescandies Red, Yellow, Blue, Orange and Miss Green as they criss-cross the nation and follow them on their new Twitter account, @mmscanada. The Spokescandies will tweet their travels, post photos and postcards, and ask Canadians to tell them where they should head to next.

By Alex Sanders,  Head of design and brand strategy at Kyp, London

Just got back from the German Direct Marketing Congress in Wiesbaden, where Germany’s leading media heads and brands discussed trends and forecasts and presented best practice case studies. Centre of stage was social media and its effect on brands and consumers. I put together a brief summary and some selected case studies from the 2-day congress.