Does the current wave of cross-brand, cross-category co-branding represent a new stage of culture surfing among marketers? Is it just a response to customer acquisition challenges? Or is it a last gasp for branding as we have known it - more spaghetti on the wall to combat the decline of brand power altogether? Former Gucci and Jetsetter marketing exec Michael Crooks brought serious crossover energy to his current gig as VP of Marketing at supplements brand Solaray. And he has been thinking hard about how his brand intersects with travel, luxury and more.

You know it's fall when a barrage of pumpkin spice products starts hitting the shelves. From candles to cupcakes, beverages to body scrubs, you can find the flavor everywhere. So, what do brands do when they need to step outside the sea of sameness? Zig when others zag. That's what Nekter Juice Bar did when they teamed up with ABC's The Golden Bachelorette, swapping PSL for golden apples and cinnamon for their fall season's LTOs.

Riding cultish enthusiasm for a brand is harder than it may look. We engaged this problem in two recent interviews with the marketing leads for fan-powered QSR properties, Dave's Hot Chicken and Voodoo Doughnut. For both of them, maintaining authenticity and customer experience in a scalable way may be good problems to have, but they are challenges that require creative solutions.

"Sometimes the heart needs to lead when you go to market," L'Oreal's Nobles Crawford told fellow marketers at MediaPost's Brand Insider Summit: Retail weeks ago. The Assistant VP of Consumer Activation, Couture explored how the "data" marketers are so fond of embracing as their new gospel is in fact pretty laggy. Keeping innovation alive in a corporate structure and aiming ahead of current trends were among the themes he explored.