Kantar Millward Brown to launch the first BrandZ Top 30 Most Valuable South African Brands

Kantar Millward Brown announces the inaugural launch of the BrandZ™ Top 30 Most Valuable South African Brands on the 31 October in Johannesburg and 1 November in Cape Town. The ranking identifies South Africa’s Top 30 most valuable brands by interviewing over 17,300 South African consumers about their opinions on over 506 brands across 35 categories, BrandZ™ then calculates the dollar value of the intangible brand enabling businesses to assess how much ‘brand’ drives revenue, growth and market capitalisation.

BrandZ™ is the world’s largest and most definitive brand equity study that combines financial and market data with primary research data from consumers on their views about brands. Commissioned by WPP with valuations by Kantar Millward Brown, BrandZ™ has, over the last 13 years, surveyed more than 3.6 million consumers in 51 countries, creating 5.1 billion data points in the process. It reveals the power of the brand in the mind of the consumer that creates predisposition to buy a brand, and most importantly, validates a positive correlation with better sales performance.

In addition to identifying the strengths and weaknesses of a brand, BrandZ™ helps identify worldwide trends and high potential brands in fast growth markets. The study is trusted by many of the world’s most established financial institutions, including Citi Research, who publish an annual report on how brands drive equity markets, choosing BrandZ™ to power it. BrandZ™ valuations are also fed directly into the Bloomberg terminals, used by over 300,000 of the world’s most influential decision makers. The Financial Times publishes the BrandZ™ global ranking each year, looking not just at the rankings but at our analysis of why the results are what they are.

Brands are becoming increasingly important to CFOs and CEOs, and brand valuation is a metric that quantifies the worth of these powerful but intangible corporate assets. “A strong brand helps differentiate you from your competitors, is a major source of shareholder value and helps protect your business from risk”, comments Charles Foster, CEO Insights Division, Kantar, Africa & Middle East. “It enables brand owners, the investment community and others to evaluate and compare brands and make faster and better-informed decisions. Want proof? In the past 13 years, the S&P 500 has grown in value by 102%, while the BrandZ™ Strong Brands portfolio grew at 172% over the same period. Put simply, $100 invested in the BrandZ™ portfolio 13 years ago would be worth $272 today compared to $202 if invested in the S&P 500.”

The report includes learnings and recommendations from BrandZ™ experts as well as brand building and thought leadership insights from WPP experts in South Africa including Barrows, Burson Cohn & Wolfe, Cerebra, Collective ID, Geometry, Grey, Hill & Knowlton Strategies, Kantar, Mediacom, Ogilvy, Smollan, Student Village, Superunion, The Hardy Boys, TMARC and Wunderman.

The methodology in the BrandZ™ Top 30 Most Valuable South African Brands report mirrors that which was used to calculate the annual BrandZ™ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands ranking which is now in its 13th year. The suite of BrandZ™ country rankings and reports also includes China, India, Latin America, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, Spain, the UK, France, Germany, Australia, the U.S. and Italy.

Keynote speakers at the launch include David Roth, CEO of WPP’s the Store & Chairman BAV, who shares an overview of BrandZ and “brand” South Africa, Doreen Wang, the Global Head of BrandZ who shares key learnings form the global study and Nigel Hollis, Chief Global Analyst for Kantar Millward Brown, who talks about how to leverage disruption to win. There will also be a panel discussion with leading South African marketers including Abey Mokgwatsane, Managing Executive of Brand at Vodacom, Charlene Van Zyl, Head of Customer at Woolworths, Doug Place, CMO Nando’s, Tshego Tshukutswane, Director Kantar Consulting, Francois Viviers, Executive: Marketing and Communications at Capitec Bank, Nunu Ntshingila, Head of Facebook Africa, Thulani Sibeko, CMO Standard Bank, and Eric Salama, the Global CEO for Kantar.

To find out more about the ranking or if you are interested in attending the launch please contact moc.ratnak@razel.aras

Follow the results #BrandZSA

About Kantar Millward Brown

Kantar Millward Brown is a leading global research agency specialising in advertising effectiveness, strategic communication, media and digital, and brand equity research. The company helps clients grow great brands through comprehensive research-based qualitative and quantitative solutions. Kantar Millward Brown operates in more than 55 countries and is part of WPP’s Kantar group, one of the world’s leading data, insight and consultancy companies. Learn more at www.millwardbrown.com.

About WPP

WPP is the world leader in communications services. The company provides a comprehensive range of services including digital, ecommerce and shopper marketing; advertising & media investment management; data investment management; public relations & public affairs; brand consulting; health and wellness communications; and specialist communications. For more information, visit www.wpp.com