What’s new on the brand front? – December edition
In our last issue of The Brand Front newsletter in 2022, we look back at an exciting year for branding. December is everyone's favorite time for lists and overviews: The highly anticipated Interbrand Best Global Brands ranking had a few surprises in store this year. Find out why Airbnb is now among the top brands, and discover some exciting developments about the world's most valuable brands. If your New Year's resolution is to read more (brand-related content), we got you covered: Three reports on brand management, a review of five rebranding projects, and a couple of branding highlights ensure you'll start the new year inspired and informed.
Interbrand Best Global Brands: Tech still in the lead
Interbrand’s Best Global Brands is a well-established annual listing of the world’s most valuable brands. In this year’s top 100, we spotted a few interesting things.
In the top 10, we see the usual suspects in a slightly different order. Apple still leads the list. A 32% boost in brand equity made Microsoft pass Amazon, which now is in third place. Another major value increase can be seen at Google, and Samsung is still going strong. All top five brands are in the tech category, which has been the case since Coca-Cola left that exclusive group in 2020.
Generally, the 2022 ranking shows a way higher average brand value than last year — a record 16% increase. According to Interbrand, this demonstrates the growing contribution a company’s brand has in driving its economic success.
“While financial markets have shown significant swings over the last few years, the value of the world’s strongest brands have steadily increased driving customer choice, loyalty and margins.” – Interbrand
Three newcomers are exciting: Airbnb, Red Bull, and Xiaomi. For the first time, Airbnb reached 1 billion guest arrivals. The company’s recent strategic shift from search engine marketing to a rather brand-driven approach has certainly contributed to this success. Red Bull, the brand that is so much bigger than the product it sells, focuses on experiences rather than features: Going way beyond its energy drink, Red Bull organizes and sponsors many sports, dancing, and gaming events worldwide. The brand’s estimated value of USD 11.5 million puts it in 64th place. Twenty places lower on the list is the Chinese consumer electronics brand Xiaomi, whose purpose is “to make friends with its users,” which has led to a large and loyal community. Innovative marketing strategies and competitive pricing have boosted the brand’s popularity. (One day, it might even become a serious threat to Samsung and Apple.)
Download the Best Global Brands 2022 report
Airbnb: The shift to brand marketing
Five years after its 2014 rebrand by DesignStudio, Airbnb has started to make a gradual but major change to its marketing operations, which has paid off. The online marketplace for homestays has expressed its belief in the power of branding by shifting focus from search advertising to broad brand marketing campaigns. For quite some time, Airbnb has been spending most on activities that generate direct consumer action. Investing in making the brand more widely known and beloved has made the brand more attractive at large. Instead of just pushing the offering to the customer, pull is being created in the market.
One example of the increased brand-building efforts is the “Made Possible by Hosts” ad campaign, essentially a series of slide shows featuring unpolished photos of special holiday moments made by the guests themselves. This high degree of authenticity brings the brand closer to the people by showing viewers what Airbnb is all about: facilitating valuable experiences.
“Rather than showing a dreary room listing, photography and film boldly captured the people and places that make these magical experiences and special connections possible.” – DesignStudio
Airbnb has shown that it understands that investing in its reputation might not show great returns in the short run but can make the brand more known and desirable. Eventually, this approach will make Airbnb get into people’s minds and hearts and, ideally, make performance marketing a nice-to-have element. In 2022, Airbnb’s brand value was an estimated USD 13.4 million — more than enough to enter Interbrand’s Best Global Brands ranking.
Read the Wall Street Journal article
2022 rebrands: The highlights
In 2022, we have seen many interesting rebrands, varying from visual facelifts to full-fletched reboots. We want to highlight the following:
Stripes play a central role in Condor’s new appearance. In April, the German airline introduced this simple design element inspired by parasols, bath towels, and beach chairs. Particularly, the livery design in various color versions gets people into a holiday mood and makes the brand very recognizable — even high up in the skies.
The “Heat Happens – Stay Cool” ad campaign hasn’t excited us too much, but the Sprite rebrand of last May certainly has been an exciting one. The Coca-Cola brand has done a great job in redesigning practically everything: The logo is simplified, visual key elements are applied consistently, and black adds a dark counterpart to the established white and green color scheme.
In June, pharma giant GSK surprised us with new stylish visuals with dynamic elements by Wolff Olins. The rebrand has gone beyond this major facelift: GSK recognized that people accelerate real change, and the company introduced “The Code,” which covers its commitments and expectations from employees.
Ten years into its existence, task automation software Zapier finalized its first rebrand project in July. Michael Jeter, Creative Director of Brand at Zapier: “For our customers, Zapier is a platform full of possibilities. And for Zapier, our customers are our brand.” This mindset has inspired the redesign of the brand’s visuals that stayed rather subtle. A modest logo, simple color palette, and unobtrusive typeface leave the main stage for the customer.
After a wave of rebrands in the automotive space, it was Škoda’s turn in August. The strategy of going (more) digital and electric isn’t much different from competitor brands, but the visual overhaul has given Škoda a modern, solid look. A special mention goes to the interesting combination of two green shades, representing the dynamic and responsible face of the brand’s future.
3 must-read brand reports
Lots of interesting reports about branding have been published in 2022. We would like to highlight three of them:
The Agency-Brand Disconnect: Finding a Way Forward
In January, Ad Age Studio 30 published this short report about the disconnect between agencies and brands. The research takes a closer look at mismatched expectations and the mutual dissatisfaction this can lead to and offers suggestions on how to improve the brand-client relationship.
The Total Economic Impact™ Of Frontify’s Brand Management Platform
In May, research company Forrester published this report about the benefits of investing in a brand management platform. Customer interviews reveal that such a portal is appreciated for being a single source of truth that’s accessible to everyone and provides a considerable return on investment.
Local, global or glocal: Effective brand governance in the age of marketing transformation
This report by WARC, released in October, covers the topic of brand governance on a global scale. The paper shows how brands achieve consistency and consider differences in culture and language at other locations, finding the right balance between brand compliance and localization.
