Move over Microsoft. Google is officially the world’s number one brand, according to this year’s BRANDZ Top 100 Most Powerful Brands awards held in London this week.
Google leapt six places to the top of the pile, usurping Microsoft, which moves down into third place behind General Electric ($61,880m) and followed by Coca-Cola, valued at $44,134 million.
Produced by market research and consulting firm Millward Brown Optimor and sponsored by The Financial Times, the BRANDZ Top 100 balances consumer brand interest with financial measures to give an overall value. The awards are separated into two categories: global brands and UK brands, with market performance metrics and financial data obtained from Datamonitor and Bloomberg. The study interviewed more than one million consumers globally and covers 39,000 brands.
With Google’s recent cash antics it comes as no surprise to see the online behemoth topping the global table, especially after this month’s $3.1million acquisition of internet ad service DoubleClick and the high profile takeover of last year’s UGC phenomenon YouTube. As a result Google’s brand value has risen from $37,445 million to $66,434 million. In comparison, Microsoft dropped from $62,039 million to $54,951 million.
Topping the UK table for another year was Vodafone, racking up a total brand value of $21,107 million, followed by HSBC and the fast expanding empire that is Tesco. Other noticeable changes this year include a spirited recovery for retailer Marks and Spencer. Baskingin the glory of a high profile marketing blitz out of RKCR/Y&R, M&S’ debut in the UK top 10 proves how advertising campaigns can impact a brand by increasing its brand value threefold (192%) to $9,509 million, the highest riser over the last year in value growth.
The aggregate value of all brands in the Top 100 increased by 10.6% in one year, from $1.44 trillion in 2006 to $1.6 trillion in 2007. ‘Success stories from this year's BRANDZ™ Top 100 demonstrate that winning brands leverage major market trends effectively to create business value,’ said Joanna Seddon, global CEO Millward Brown Optimor. ‘Strong brands are capable of extending into areas of opportunity to access new revenue streams and to help businesses respond to market changes.’
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