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Innovation Strategy Awards

Trend Hunter’s Innovation Strategy Awards recognize the best innovation tactics gathered from our interviews with some of the world's most notable business leaders, authors and change makers.

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Innovation Strategy Award Winner
Vicki Hollub, Occidental

Innovation Strategy Awards

Launched in 2022, Trend Hunter’s Innovation Strategy Awards spotlight the best innovation tactics gathered from our innovationstrategy.com interviews with the world’s leading CEOs, authors and speakers featured. Winners are selected based on a set of criteria across five innovation framework categories including Ability to Change, Culture of Innovation, Infectious Messaging, Opportunity Hunting and Adaptive Innovation. Those receiving Innovation Strategy Awards are not only recognized on the Future Festival World Summit stage, but are also presented with an epic 3D-printed rocket ship trophy. Celebrating today’s change makers, the trophy is representative of the inspiring and boundary-pushing efforts being led by each winner, both within their industry and beyond it.

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Award for Infectious Messaging
David Lee
Sr. Director, Global Licensing & Cultural Marketing, Kellanova

Tactic: Cultural Synergy + aligning Kellanova brands with consumer passion points in culturally relevant ways such as fashion, music, sports + entertainment

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Award for Ability to Change
Kimberly-Clark

Tactic: Rapid Learning Cycles & Storytelling to connect new solutions with consumers

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Award for Sustainability Impact
Elisa Giusti
Vice President Marketing, Strategy and Innovation, Fonterra

Tactic: Carbon Footprint Transparency + carbon footprinter tool launch to help consumers quantify the carbon impact of their ingredients

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Award for Culture of Innovation
Kristel Zaman
Head of Marketing, Grundfos

Tactic: “Keep on Dancing Through Grundfos” Teams chat connecting employees globally for spontaneous idea sharing and discussions

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Award for Adaptive Innovation
Taras Malyshev & Petra O’Brien
Head of New Business Innovation and New Business Innovation, Pizza Hut

Tactic: Firefly Tests to quickly validate ideas and adjust based on real-world feedback

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Award for Opportunity Hunting
Ranata Alves
Digital Innovation Manager, BASF

Tactic: “Beyond the Hashtag” program applying emerging tech trends to create new business opportunities

The 2024 Innovation Strategy Award Winners

Innovation Strategy Award Winner David Lee
David Lee - Sr. Director, Global Licensing & Cultural Marketing, Kellanova
Award for Infectious Messaging

Tactic: Cultural Synergy + aligning Kellanova brands with consumer passion points in culturally relevant ways such as fashion, music, sports + entertainment

Innovation Strategy Award Winner Kimberly-Clark
Kimberly-Clark
Award for Ability to Change

Tactic: Rapid Learning Cycles & Storytelling to connect new solutions with consumers

Innovation Strategy Award Winner Elisa Giusti
Elisa Giusti - Vice President Marketing, Strategy and Innovation, Fonterra
Award for Sustainability Impact

Tactic: Carbon Footprint Transparency + carbon footprinter tool launch to help consumers quantify the carbon impact of their ingredients

Innovation Strategy Award Winner Kristel Zaman
Kristel Zaman - Head of Marketing, Grundfos
Award for Culture of Innovation

Tactic: “Keep on Dancing Through Grundfos” Teams chat connecting employees globally for spontaneous idea sharing and discussions

Innovation Strategy Award Winner Taras Malyshev & Petra O’Brien
Taras Malyshev & Petra O’Brien - Head of New Business Innovation and New Business Innovation, Pizza Hut
Award for Adaptive Innovation

Tactic: Firefly Tests to quickly validate ideas and adjust based on real-world feedback

Innovation Strategy Award Winner Ranata Alves
Ranata Alves - Digital Innovation Manager, BASF
Award for Opportunity Hunting

Tactic: “Beyond the Hashtag” program applying emerging tech trends to create new business opportunities

The 2023 Innovation Strategy Award Winners

Innovation Strategy Award Winner Caronlina Ardila and Natalia Gadioli
Caronlina Ardila and Natalia Gadioli - Consumer Strategic Insights Manager and Head of New Business
Award for Ability to Change

Tactic: Align to changing consumer needs by co-creating with the consumer directly, and leverage their honest feedback to make your product better and more user-centric.

Innovation Strategy Award Winner Bill Digneit
Bill Digneit - Director of SISU: The Innovation Institute, Nothern Michigan University
Award for Culture of Innovation

Tactic: Leverage design thinking to support your community by fostering a culture of experimentation and collaboration. The $1 Reno-Innovate Fund provides new ideas with a two-year testing phase and reframes failure as a learning opportunity.

Innovation Strategy Award Winner Lee Barnsley
Lee Barnsley - Global Design Officer, Reckitt
Award for Opportunity Hunting

Tactic: Take brainstorming outside of your market to unlock new and unexpected areas of opportunity and to reach untapped consumer groups more authentically.

Innovation Strategy Award Winner Doug Warner
Doug Warner - Head of Business Innovation, Amazon Web Services
Award for Adaptive Innovation

Tactic: Adopt a Customer 360 Approach leveraging cross-industry trends and consumer insights to address processing issues during times of chaos and uncertainty. During the pandemic, they relied on this approach to create better, more adaptable supply chain solutions.

Innovation Strategy Award Winner Gabrielle Walker
Gabrielle Walker - R&D Scientist, PepsiCo
Award for Infectious Messaging

Tactic: Approach innovation through a human-centric lens and cultivate a culture of innovation company-wide through initiatives that promote curiosity while challenging conventional thinking. Their Trend Collective and Curiosity Council facilitate collaborative ideation while enhancing knowledge and skills.

The 2022 Innovation Strategy Award Winners

Innovation Strategy Award Winner Vicki Hollub
Vicki Hollub - CEO, Occidental
Award for Ability to Change

Tactic: Empower your people and challenge them to save the world. More specifically, for Vicki, this award recognizes her taking the bold leap and spending $1 Billion on a Direct Air Carbon Capture facility to extract pollution from the sky.

Innovation Strategy Award Winner Jamie Wideman
Jamie Wideman - Molson Coors
Award for Culture of Innovation

Tactic: Create a "Failure Playbook" so that we can learn best practices from our mistakes.

Innovation Strategy Award Winner Brian Coupland
Brian Coupland - SVP Merchandising, Staples
Award for Culture of Innovation

Tactic: Give people a "Written Permission Slip to Fail" so they can face fear of failure head on.

Innovation Strategy Award Winner Bill Hayden
Bill Hayden - Chief Strategy Officer & EVP, Universal Parks & Resorts
Award for Infectious Messaging

Tactic: Proactively address all possible fears with a solution-based state of mind across your organization. This mindset pushes teams to go beyond identifying challenges and opportunities, leading to more actionable solutions.

Innovation Strategy Award Winner Debbie Amato
Debbie Amato - Chief, New Idea Office, NASA
Award for Opportunity Hunting

Tactic: Host "Poster Sessions" where people share ideas that are like a science fair for adults in order to create collisions.

Innovation Strategy Award Winner David Dombrowski
David Dombrowski - R&D Head of Innovation, Haleon
Award for Opportunity Hunting

Tactic: Enable Passion Projects, but tie them to company-centric North Star ideas, to fill the gap between dreams and day-to-day.

Innovation Strategy Award Winner Lawren Barnett
Lawren Barnett - Global Insights Futurist, Coca-Cola
Award for Adaptive Innovation

Tactic: Battle test ideas using "Extreme Scenarios" and then work back to the more applicable idea.

Innovation Strategy Award Winner Tammy Butterworth
Tammy Butterworth - Front End Innovation, PepsiCo
Award for Adaptive Innovation

Tactic: Future test ideas by innovating 10 years out, then work back; Engaging all 5 senses with immersive meetings.

Innovation Strategy Award Categories

Our Innovation Award Categories are based on innovation frameworks modeled by CEO, keynote speaker, and New York Times bestselling author Jeremy Gutsche. They include Ability to Change, Culture of Innovation, Infectious Messaging, Opportunity Hunting and Adaptive Innovation, with winners chosen through a self nomination or peer nomination process.

Innovation Strategy Award Categories
Ability to Change

Redefining your brand message and evolving with today's fast-paced world

Culture of Innovation

Encouraging and driving forward a culture of innovation on a macro level.

Opportunity Hunting

Identifying disruptive ideas and opportunities in unexpected places.

Adaptive Innovation

Adapting during times of chaos and facing challenges head on.

Infectious Messaging

Rethinking your value prop and marketing to more effectively speak to consumers.

Sustainability Impact

Integrating sustainability into business models and products.

Innovation Strategy Awards 2025

Innovation Strategy Awards Nominations

Presented by Trend Hunter, the 2025 Innovation Strategy Awards will take place at Future Festival World Summit on September 23rd, 2025. Celebrating inspiring tactics from the world’s top innovators, the awards are based on our renowned innovation frameworks and are sourced from our innovationstrategy,com interview database – spotlighting conversations with thought leaders, authors and Fortune 500 CEOs.

Eligibility:
A company or person entered into the Innovation Strategy Awards will be chosen based on actionable innovation tactics and must complete our enclosed survey to be eligible.

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