Japan’s first award to evaluate “branding”
Interbrand Japan announce the winners of the Japan Branding Awards 2022
- The “Best of the Best” award went to Ajinomoto and Marugame Seimen
- Money Forward and SANU awarded “Rising Stars”
- ABeam Consulting, BOTANIST, Fujitsu Uvance, GAMBA OSAKA, KATE, and Sophie #NoBagForMe awarded “Winners”
Interbrand Japan (Shibuya-ku, Tokyo; President and CEO: Masahito Namiki), Japan’s largest branding company, has established the Japan Branding Awards, the first awards in Japan to evaluate branding, and announced the winning 2022 brands for its fifth annual Awards.
These Awards were established to support the further growth of companies and organizations that are developing brand strategies by recognizing entities (companies, organizations, businesses, products, and services) that are implementing excellent branding, introducing their activities, and sharing them widely with society.
At Interbrand, we believe that key to a company’s business success is not only its technological, service, and product capabilities, but also how it can build brand value through these capabilities. We believe that branding does not simply mean advertising and promotional activities, but rather that the entire organization must understand the value of the brand and the importance of these activities, and must work together as one to establish a strong brand, which will lead to mid- to long-term business growth.
In these Awards, 10 brands were selected and announced based on a composite analysis and evaluation of the organic linkage of their respective activities and their contribution to generating positive effects, from the perspective of overall marketing activities, including brand strategy and experience base building, creative development, and communication activities.
Award-winning brands
Best of the Best:
Overall, particularly outstanding efforts among the award-winning brands
- Ajinomoto (Ajinomoto Co., Inc.)
- Marugame Seimen (Marugame Seimen, Inc.)
Rising Stars:
Outstanding and original initiatives that have achieved significant growth through branding
- Money Forward (Money Forward, Inc.)
- SANU (Sanu Inc.)
Winners:
Excellent among the applied brands
- ABeam Consulting (ABeam Consulting Ltd.)
- BOTANIST (I-ne Co., Ltd.)
- Fujitsu Uvance (Fujitsu Ltd.)
- GAMBA OSAKA (GAMBA OSAKA Co., Ltd.)
- KATE (Kao Corporation) Sofi #NoBagForMe (Unicharm Corporation)
Japan Branding Awards 2022 Judging and Selection Process Overview
Sponsor:
Interbrand Japan, Inc.
Review Committee:
Chairman of the Jury: Masahito Namiki, President and CEO, Interbrand Japan, Inc.
Vice-Chairmen of the Judging Committee:
- Satoshi Akutsu, Professor of International Corporate Strategy, Hitotsubashi Business School
- Risa Tanaka President, Professor, Business Design Graduate University / Director, Media & Information, Sendenkaigi, Co., Ltd.
- Kazufumi Nagai President, HAKUHODO DESIGN Inc.
Jury members: Office Leaders, Interbrand Japan, Inc.
Scope:
The branding of companies, businesses, services, and products are covered.
- Companies apply where they have a single business or have only a single service or product.
2. Companies with multiple businesses, services, or products, apply on a division basis (multiple divisions from the same company may apply).
Applicant Qualifications:
Applicants must be Japanese companies, foreign-affiliated companies doing business in Japan, and various corporations and organizations. There are no restrictions on the size of the company or business unit. Applications are self-recommended by the respective corporations/organizations. We do not accept applications recommended by others, applications on behalf of advertising companies, PR firms, etc., or applications by individuals.
Timeframe for branding review:
Activities over the past three years (April 2019 – June 2022).
Selection Process:
The selection process is in three stages.
- First and second rounds: Based on the application documents, successful companies proceed to the third round. (The first selection is based on a simple format, while the second selection is based on a detailed description of the applicant’s activities.)
- Third round selection: With the aim of conducting more in-depth selection regarding the uniqueness and differentiation of strategies and the process from strategy development to communication development, we conduct interviews with companies and businesses that have passed the second round selection, and select and announce the winning companies and businesses.
Selection Criteria:
From the perspective of the overall content of the activities, including the establishment of the strategy and experience base, creative development, and communication activities, a composite evaluation is made as to whether each activity is executed promptly and contributes to creating an effect through a fixed-term linkage.
Judging Perspectives:
We believe that the key to successful branding lies in two perspectives: whether or not the necessary elements are incorporated into the efforts to build a foundation for strategy & experience and provide a place for experience, and whether or not the penetration of these elements is quickly and organically connected, shared, and deployed both internally and externally.
This award focuses on four initiatives and the results achieved through these initiatives, which are analyzed and evaluated according to the evaluation viewpoints and evaluation points.
For more information visit: https://www.interbrandjapan.com/ja/jba/jba2022/list.html
For more information, please contact:
NAKAMURA Masamichi, YAMAMURO Motoshi, OKAMOTO Kayo, SAITO Manami, Interbrand Japan Inc.
Tel: 03-5448-1200
Fax: 03-5448-1052
Email: [email protected]
About Interbrand Group
Interbrand Group is made up of Interbrand, the world’s leading brand consultancy and C Space, the global customer agency.
Interbrand has been a world leading brand consultancy for over 45 years, having pioneered iconic work and forged many of the brand building tools that are commonplace across the industry today.
In an age of unprecedented abundance of choice and speed of innovation, customers’ expectations are moving faster than business. While incremental change is still essential, it is no longer sufficient. It takes bold moves to leap ahead of customers and competitors. Interbrand calls these moves Iconic Moves.
In collaboration with the world’s leading brands, Interbrand’s global team of thinkers and makers are pioneering the future of brand building. By turning customers into active participants, Interbrand helps its clients strengthen their brands on an ongoing basis. This approach gives them confidence to make Iconic Moves that spark desire and create utility, driving extraordinary results.
Interbrand is a part of the Omnicom Group (NYSE:OMC).
For more information, please visit www.interbrand.com.
About Interbrand Japan
Interbrand Japan was established in 1983, the third office in Interbrand’s global network, following London and New York. Together with C Space (headquartered in Boston and London, Japanese office in Shibuya, Tokyo), a customer agency that has developed globally to help companies incorporate the customer’s perspectives into its business through online community management and co-creation workshops with customers, we provide total branding services for a variety of organizations including Japanese enterprises, international companies, governments, and public agencies. Please visit https://www.interbrandjapan.com to learn more.