Driving results for the best global brands
Keith Austin, Chief Executive at Event Marketing Solutions considers Interbrand’s prestigious and much anticipated Best Global Brands Report 2013, which launched earlier this week.
Many will be familiar with the vast majority of multimillion pound household names - the crème de la crème of worldwide brands – that make up Interbrand’s annual Best Global Brands Report. Nevertheless it continues to make fascinating reading.
The methodology used by Interbrand to create its list of the world’s most valuable brands is thorough – it was the first of its kind to become ISO certified and analyses the many ways that a brand touches and benefits an organisation; from driving bottom-line results to delivering on customer expectations.
For the first time there is a new brand at ‘number one’ – Apple. It is followed by Google, and Coca-Cola, which held pole position for 13 consecutive years, has moved into third place.
Apple has been on the list since it launched in 2000. It ranked at 36 and had a brand value of $6.6 billion. As it sits at the number one spot, its brand value has increased almost 15 times to $98.3 billion. Given Apple’s international profile, and highly innovative and customer centric approach, this may not come as a surprise to many, but there’s no getting away from the fact that its rise to supremacy is impressive.
Technology dominates as the most valuable sector overall – it has a combined brand value of $443.154 billion and seven tech brands have made it into the top ten.
Samsung ranks in eighth place and has one of the strongest increases of absolute brand value this year. Interbrand experts have put this down to its commitment to product innovation and foresight to anticipate what consumers will desire next as well as huge marketing spend.
The technology sector has also led the way when it comes to embracing roadshow campaigns – in the last year alone we’ve accumulated hundreds of roadshow event days on behalf of brands operating in the sector. On Interbrand’s Top 100, Samsung is just one of the tech brands that we have worked with; managing its Smart TV Discovery Lounge roadshow for the past two years.
Of course, Interbrand’s Best Global Brands Report 2013 isn’t the only one of its kind - Millward Brown releases the annual Brandz Top 100 - but what they all consistently highlight is the importance of brand value and the impact this can have on business success.
Roadshow truck tours is one of the tools that businesses are employing to increase their brand value – providing a means to create an immersive brand experience that can be replicated across several countries, driving customer engagement and delivering high ROI.
IBM, Cisco, HP and Oracle all ranked in the top 10 of the Best Global Brands Report 2013. They are also businesses that we’ve worked with here at EMS. In fact, a total of 17 in the top 25 global brands have used roadshows as part of their marketing drive, of which we’ve worked with over 40%.
This is far from a coincidence. Roadshows provide a way for brands to create stand-out and demonstrate innovation in a competitive marketplace. They can be used to support a myriad of business objectives from driving education and awareness to relationship building. In a nutshell they offer a way of effortlessly crossing geographical boundaries to get products and services directly in front of customers to boost sales – helping increase a brand’s value in a number of ways from influencing economic performance to customer buying behaviour.
We think 70% of the top 25 world’s leading brands can’t be wrong – let us tell you more about what we are doing to keep our clients on top – and what we can do for you. Get in touch today.
