Above, GE Chief Marketing Officer Beth Comstock discusses the "great mash-up" — the collaboration between big companies, start-ups, government and academia driving healthcare breakthroughs, as GE demonstrated in the "big data" elements of its Super Bowl campaign. Feel free to follow and join in the conversation via the #WhatWorks hashtag on Twitter.

Courtesy of Harvard Business Review, here's a video featuring Robert Chavez, CEO of Hermès US, talking about why employee engagement and an online/digital presence are key to driving his business and brand objectives.

McDonald's is taking another step to mollify critics as it agrees to push its pork suppliers to stop confining sows in small pens. These "gestation stalls," as explained above, are "not a sustainable production system," the chain said, and there are alternatives that "are better for the welfare of sows."

The move is the latest by McDonald's to engage some of its many critics, demonstrate concern about issues such as animal welfare where it's deemed possible for the business, and make some changes. Recently, for example, McDonald's decided to stop using ammonium hydroxide in its burgers after celebrity chef Jamie Oliver criticized the use of the filler ingredient as "not fit for a dog."

McDonald's announced its move in conjunction with the Humane Society of the U.S. The stalls confine adult female hogs whose offspring are raised and slaughtered for bacon and sausage, giving the sows enough room only to stand up and sit down. They're among the practices criticized by Chipotle on Sunday in its lengthy ad during the Grammy music awards.Continue reading...

A week and a half ago, you had probably never heard his name; now you're no doubt sick of the puns. If you had heard of Jeremy Lin, he was as an undrafted, backup backup backup NBA point guard who had been dumped by the Golden State Warriors and Houston Rockets before signing on with the guard-needy New York Knicks this offseason.

Now he’s set the NBA world afire, becoming the first player in history to score 20 or more points and assist on seven or more baskets a game in his first four starts, all New York victories. Take that, Michael Jordan.

Lin is being paid $800,000 this season, the league minimum for a second-year player, but his brand has risen exponentially in the past week. According to Forbes, Lin’s brand is worth $14 million right now. Not bad for a guy who was couch-surfing — crashing at his brother's NYC apartment — not long ago.Continue reading...

Oprah Winfrey made a major faux pas during Sunday's Grammy Award broadcast on Sunday night by tweeting: “Every 1 who can please turn to OWN especially if u have a Neilsen box,” as OWN debuted the latest episode of Winfrey's flagship series, Oprah’s Next Chapter.

Not only did Oprah violate Nielsen rules, (and misspell its name as "Neilsen"), she surprised and offended many. In fact, social media experts like Ian Schafer, CEO of Deep Focus, Gary Vaynerchuk and New York Times media reporter Brian Stelter all questioned if the tweet really came from Oprah.

Indeed it did. She also defended the action after a Twitter follower called the request "desperate" by responding: "'desperate' not ever part of my vocab." Is this what Brand Oprah has come to?Continue reading...

When you Google "Hasbro," the company is identified as “Hasbro Toys, Games, Action Figures and More.” While the first three have dominated the company’s business for most of its 89 years, it’s that last part that is getting a lot of the company’s attention these days.

The “and more” has taken the form of TV and film productions related to Hasbro products. Thanks to the success of the Transformers films, which have grossed $2.6 billion worldwide and are based on the toys that were strewn across the playrooms of little boys in the mid-’80s, Hasbro has begun delving deeper into the worlds of television and film production, according to the New York Times.

Helping to build Hasbro’s confidence in this area is the success of its G.I. Joe movie, which grossed $302 million worldwide. Now a sequel to that film is coming out this summer as well as an action-adventure film based on the Hasbro game Battleship, which was promoted with a Super Bowl commercial (at top).Continue reading...

Many argue that Coca-Cola overpaid substantially for a better-for-you beverage line when it bought Glaceau, and its Vitaminwater brand, for $4 billion in 2007. Yet the share of the bottled-water market enjoyed by Vitaminwater and its siblling Smartwater brand continues to grow in a category that has flattened out.

Coke would probably settle for a similar outcome as it moves to exercise its option to acquire a majority stake in Zico, the no. 2 brand of coconut water in the United States by sales, after purchasing a minority holding in the start-up for less than $15 million in 2009. Coke won't disclose the price of the option, but it probably isn't $4 billion.

Coconut water is emerging as another important front in the "cola wars" between PepsiCo and Coke, because just as Coke is moving in on Zico, PepsiCo is rolling out nationwide distribution of the No. 3 brand, O.N.E., after taking a majority stake in the brand in 2010.

Vita Coco, the No. 1-selling U.S. coconut water brand, has attracted celebrity endorsements by Rihanna, Madonna and the New York Yankees' Alex Rodriguez. It's controlled by founder Michael Kirban and Verlinvest, a Belgian investment firm, and more than doubled its revenue last year to nearly $100 million. That figure indicates a continued acceleration in growth of coconut-water sales because near the middle of that high-growth year, for the 52 weeks ended September 3rd, sales for the entire coconut-water segment in the U.S. were about $110 million — more than double the year-earlier figure of $54 million — according to SPINS, which provides sales data on nutritional and better-for-you foods.Continue reading...

In honor of Valentine's Day, London's Victoria Station is hosting an interactive billboard (which it's calling a ‘tweet screen’) to engage the public through February 19th. Over the seven-day run of the interactive campaign, Dove will post a question on the JCDecaux large-format Transvision screen in the path of 350,000 commuters daily.

The public is invited to respond via tweets using the #DOVELOVE hashtag or by SMS DOVELOVE to 60002 or via the Dove Facebook page at Facebook.com/dove.

On Monday, the question was, "What makes you feel beautiful?" with responses sent via Twitter or SMS posted on the screen. Today, on Valentine's Day, the question is: "What do you love about your Valentine?" with Dove brand ambassadors handing out white tulips.Continue reading...