Mike Hughes, the longtime creative leader and president of The Martin Agency, passed away Sunday after his longtime fight with lung cancer. He was 65. He helped shape the agency into a national player, turning out work that became famous not just in advertising, but in pop culture. Among those were campaigns for Geico --including those starring the Cavemen and the Gecko, and other notable work for FreeCreditReport.com, the JFK Museum and Library and Oreo. His autobituary is at http://unfinishedthinking.com/.

It's the one-year anniversary of the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary. The video "Newtown and Silicon Valley: The Search for Solutions" presented at a Fast Company events, tells how a group of parents created Sandy Hook Promise. The group, which comprises a former marketer at Proctor & Gamble, an IT executive at Dell, and a therapist sought out Republican gun owners who were also parents. And reached out to the Tech Committee to Reduce Gun Violence, a Silicon Valley group to create "smart" guns.

Media agency Mindshare Worldwide has partnered with Shazam to launch the Audio+ program to help brands audit the sound-based elements of their global advertising campaigns using the Shazam App. The app uses audio content recognition tech to identify for ROI a brand's audio assets from TV, radio and in-store ads.

As of Jan. 1, Coca-Cola will split into Coca-Cola North America and Coca-Cola Refreshments. Coca-Cola North America (CCNA) will be led by J. A. M. "Sandy" Douglas as group president. Coca-Cola Refreshments (CCR), the bottling operations of North America, will become part of the Bottling Investments Group (BIG) and be led by Paul Mulligan as president.

Amazon.com is working on a new business called Pantry that will help it expand further into the giant consumer package goods market and versus warehouse club stores Costco and Wal-Mart's Sam's Club, according to sources. Pantry, which is run by Billy Hegeman, a senior manager in vendor management and consumables at Amazon, is currently set to launch in 2014, the people said on condition of anonymity. They did not want to be identified because Amazon's plans are still private.

The fuel economy of new vehicles sold in the United States set a record for efficiency during model year 2012 as vehicles reached an all-time high fuel economy of 23.6 miles per gallon, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has reported. The 23.6 mpg figure represented a 1.2 mpg increase over the previous year, making it the second largest annual increase in the last 30 years. Fuel economy has now increased in seven of the last eight years, according to the EPA.

Costco on Wednesday said it is observing what the possibilities are on e-commerce, including home delivery. "E-commerce is certainly an important component of what's out there and what's growing, and as a retail competitor, we recognize it's part of the landscape," Richard Galanti, EVP and chief financial officer, told industry analysts during a conference call. "But we're very much a brick-and-mortar company, with 97%-plus of our business done in-store, not online. People actually do like to go out and shop."

Target was the most-browsed mobile app/site in 2013, and Apple's mobile app/site is where consumers purchase the most, according to a new study from Mobiquity. The study found that the volume of mobile shopping has increased, in some case tripled versus last year. In 2012, 14% of consumers shopped at Apple using smartphones; in 2013 it's 49%. But after browsing retailers' mobile apps and sites, 35% of consumers went on to complete their purchase in-store. Fewer than 16% completed purchases on smartphones.

Buffalo Wild Wings said today it would switch its soda supplier from Coca-Cola to PepsiCo, which includes Pepsi as the carbonated drink of choice but also extends to such siblings as Doritos, Fritos, Tostitos, Ruffles and beverages including Mountain Dew, Tropicana and Lipton. Minneapolis-based Buffalo Wild Wings, which has some 975 locations nationwide, said it would tap into Pepsi's official alliances with the NFL and MLB to help bolster a sports-activated strategy that already includes title sponsorship of the college football Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl.

The NHL has created its first store-within-a-store concept with a major national retailer, joining with Dick's Sporting Goods to set up shop in New York, Chicago and Pittsburgh to sell goodies for the holidays, with a focus on items related to the four outdoor games that will be part of the Coors Light NHL Stadium Series (January, March) as well as the Bridgestone Winter Classic on New Year's Day and the Tim Hortons Heritage Classic in March.