Beauty- Beautycounter
For pushing its mis-
sion of transparency
beyond nontoxic in-
gredients, into miti-
gating the human toll
of the supply chain—
starting with mica - Target For clean-
ing up nearly 4,000
products in the
personal-care aisle - L’Oréal For in-
vesting in inclusion,
from Made for All by
Maybelline to a nail
polish collab with
Jonathan Van Ness - Unilever
For testing chewable
toothpaste tablets,
packageless sham-
poo bars, and
refillable cosmetics - Vital Proteins
For making collagen
intake a lifestyle - Sephora For em-
bracing experiences - Flamingo For
rebranding female
body grooming - Mindbody For
perfecting spa and
salon appointments - RevAir For flip-
ping the hair dryer
on its head - Bravo Sierra
For taking basics to
boot camp with this
line developed and
tested by the military
REVAIR
This novel “reverse” hair dryer ($400) looks like a
shop vac, and indeed it sucks water out of hair. It also
straightens it—all in about 15 minutes, without expos-
ing the hair to prolonged heat, which can damage it.- Merck For de-
ploying an FDA-
approved Ebola
vaccine in Congo - Sage
Therapeutics
For developing a
treatment for post-
partum depression - Vertex For im-
proving cystic fibrosis
patients’ breathing
4. Theranica
Bioelectronics
For treating migraine
pain with a wear-
able electronic
stimulation device
5. Gelesis
For managing
weight loss with
a hydrogel pill that
simulates fullness
6. Avita Medical
For reducing burn
victims’ need for
grafts by 35% with
“spray on” skin cells
7. Syq e Me d i c a l
For fashioning
the first program-
mable inhalation
device for drug
delivery—starting
with cannabis
BiotechBrandingChina- White Claw
For riding the wave
of hard seltzer’s rise
by appealing to men,
women, and memes - Aviation Gin
For hilariously using
meta advertising,
pop culture, and
Peloton’s misfortune
to stand out in
a crowded market - Popeyes
For cooking a new
spicy chicken sand-
wich into a social
media phenomenon - Mountain Dew
For turning an apol-
ogy to the Upper
Peninsula of Michi-
gan into a golden
opportunity - Fndr For helping
brands like Glossier,
Snap, Farfetch, and
Daily Harvest find
their voice
6. Patagonia
For empowering
teen activists to chal-
lenge government
climate deniers
7. Netflix
For getting Burger
King, Coca-Cola,
Nike, and Baskin-
Robbins to hype
Stranger Things
8. Ikea For embrac-
ing weirdness, from
its catalog of TV-
show living rooms to
its grime diss track
Christmas ad
9. Procter & Gam-
ble For deploying its
massive budget to
provoke with The
Look and the docu-
series Activate
10. Adidas For con-
verting social influ-
encers into sneaker
salespeople with its
e-commerce app - Luckin Coffee
For brewing the tech-
centric chain restau-
rant of the future - Meituan-
Dianping For prov-
ing the transactional
super app can be
profitable by boost-
ing its food-delivery
membership pro-
gram and increasing
its ad revenue - Alibaba Group
For powering China’s
digital transforma-
tion with its “business
operating system” - Kuaishou For cu-
rating its short videos
to create a healthy
space for minors - Pinduoduo For
alleviating rural pov-
erty by connecting
farmers to its 500
million–plus buyers
6. Bilibili For main-
streaming its video
platform from anime
and games to music
and education
7. Yum China For
catering to fans with
personalized mobile
menus and 300 new
menu items, such as
single-bone chicken
8. Suning For serv-
ing the 70% of
China’s population in
lower-tier cities with
physical stores
9. DeepBlue Tech-
nology For launch-
ing its autonomous
buses across 10 cities
10. Palace
Museum Beijing
For translating its col-
lection into branch-
ing-narrative movies,
WeChat games,
and funky souvenirs
92 FASTCOMPANY.COM
- Intermountain
Healthcare For
initiating the largest
single-population
genomics study - Pivot Bio
For helping farmers
grow more corn - AbCellera
For accelerating the
hunt for disease-
fighting antibodies
ILLUSTRATION BY TOMASZ WOŹNIAKOWSKI