Any big idea, which helps a company flourish and establish intimate ties with consumers and pushes it forward in the industry, has a team of professionals behind. In this review based on the Fast Company’s diverse list of The 100 Most Creative People in Business 2011, we at Popsop celebrate creative geniuses in top international businesses including Apple, Google, Levi’s, Nike, PepsiCo and more who reinvent strategies of their companies and introduce new groundbreaking solutions that change the world in a certain way.

On April 29, Prince William and Catherine Middleton (now the Duke and the Duchess of Cambridge) said “I will” at Westminster Abbey—and the time ahead one of the biggest events in Great Britain was a very busy period for brands and advertisers, since each of the big manufacturers in the U.K. just could not miss the opportunity to congratulate the royal couple on their marriage. Multiple limited-edition sets and lines, hilarious advertising and tie-up with social media—all this preceded the big day. Let’s take a look at how brands tapped into the royal celebrations and paid homage to the event, which shook the nation and the whole world.

Now, with AR being probably the most powerful advertising tool in the set of ‘reality’ features used for promotion, let’s look back at another, traditional ‘reality’ promotional approach, which still works perfectly. TV commercials with their made-up plots, characters and dialogues can appeal for sure, but genuine emotions of real people are much more convincing. Building on the success of extremely popular reality programs, brands launch their own initiatives of this kind to entertain and educate audience while spreading the word about the goods—some of these projects are grandiose, the others are small-scale, but this format never leaves consumers untouched.

Usually, brands put the focus on positive things while promoting its products, but sometimes they decide to forget about sweet things and dare to come close to the line, which divides the gritty criminal world and the life of model citizens—of course, only in advertising, not when doing business. Humorous or ironical advertising campaigns featuring robbers, spies, thieves, corsairs, undercover agents, peace-breakers and all sorts of baddies (barring cruel dictators) as well as their victims are showcased in this review.

You are welcome to share your thoughts on this article written by Max Spiegelberg, Brand Director at Bloom

The saturation of markets, congestion of media and maturity of consumer understanding of brands has steered marketing practice in recent years beyond ‘image branding’ towards ‘relationship branding’.  Loyalty is no longer simply won through passive respect. Consumers demand more.

Comparison stands behind any considered choice, and any confident global brand tends to provide its consumers with an opportunity to examine both the positive and negative sides of their products—and sometimes weigh its offerings against goods by other manufacturer. Sometimes, companies also step outside the product world and help compare lots of other things—sexes, automobiles, brothers, tastes, political parties, athletes and more—to help determine which of the two is better, stronger, messier, tastier, faster, more attractive, reliable, sportive, etc.  In this overview, we won’t focus on serious ratings revealing carbon footprint or social impact, like Nike’s Environmental Apparel Design Tool, Timberland’s Eco Index or GoodWill’s rating—instead, as tribute to April Fool’s Day, which was celebrated last Friday, we will focus on humorous and tongue-in-cheek projects.