Gonzalo Brujó
Global CEO, Interbrand

Welcome to the 25th edition of Interbrand’s Best Global Brands ranking and report. This is a historic milestone, as we celebrate the world’s most extensive longitudinal study on the role that brand plays in driving revenue and creating market value.

In defining the process for brand valuation, our teams at Interbrand shifted the market understanding of brand strategy, brand management and the role a brand plays in driving growth. We know, and can prove that when a brand is treated as a strategic asset, it has the potential to drive new forms of exponential growth.

25 years of Best Global Brands data has many stories to tell.

For so many of us, the year 2000 likely feels incredibly recent. But we cannot understate or underestimate the scale of change we have experienced. Over the past twenty-five years, 185 brands have featured across our prestigious ranking. 85 have disappeared over time – including once synonymous household names like Kodak, Heinz, Nokia and AOL. Just 35 brands have remained in the Best Global Brands table cover time and only two, have remained consistently in the Top 10: Microsoft and Coca-Cola.

When we started analysing and documenting the world’s most valuable brands at the turn of the Millennium, 7% of the global population had access to a regular internet connection. The best-selling mobile handset was the Nokia 3310 – and the most anticipated handset feature was a game called Snake. Amazon had been listed on the NASDAQ for 3 years, Google would have to wait another 4 years before going public. Netflix had just started sending DVDs in the mail. Facebook, YouTube and Instagram didn’t exist at all.

Fast forward to 2024, much of the world’s information exists in our pocket. We can connect with almost any individual, in almost any location around the world, with the click of a few buttons. In 24 hours, more than 4 million hours of content is uploaded to YouTube, 4.3 billion messages are posted on Facebook, 682m tweets get sent and 67 million Instagram posts are uploaded. And this is just a fraction of the 402.74 million terabytes of data that are created and shared each day.

It goes without saying that the context in which we launch, scale, manage and grow brands has irrevocably shifted. In so many ways, it has never been easier to reach an audience and grow a brand – but as this opportunity increases, so too does the risk, especially for incumbent brands.

Growth at what cost? 

As the world at large has evolved, so have the tools, capabilities and systems we use as marketers to engage with our audiences. As these tools shift, the pressures and expectations placed on brand and marketing leaders also evolve. Today, CMOs and their teams are expected to deliver greater revenue returns, in much shorter time frames, for a significantly lower total investment.

The cumulative value of the world’s most valuable brands has increased 3.4x since Interbrand first published its ranking (from $988B to $3.4T). Whilst this may seem like impressive growth, the data and analysis states that an increasing short-term mindset has cost these companies significantly.

Utilizing our Best Global Brands data, we see that an increased focus on operational efficiency and short-term performance tactics over mid-term brand potential has cost the world’s most valuable brands $US 3.5 trillion in cumulative brand value since we started our study. This equates to approximately $200bn of lost revenue opportunity over the past 12 months.

The appeal of operational efficiencies and performance tactics is clear, especially for financial decision makers in the boardroom. But an increased reliance and almost exclusive over indexing on these kinds of tools means many of the world’s biggest companies are missing out on much higher, much more resilient, and more diversified returns over time.

What can 25 years of Best Global Brands analysis teach us about the future of business? 

Analysis shows that the most successful companies across Interbrand’s ranking treat their brand as a revenue generator, rather than as a cost centre. They utilize their brand to build deeper, more meaningful and more equitable relationships with their customers – which in turn drives loyalty and advocacy and creates more permission for these brands to be more present in consumers lives. At Interbrand, we define and describe this new approach as Arena Thinking.

Now and next, the world’s most successful companies start not with product, but with brand as their critical growth asset and engine. They use the utility and equity in their brand to drive exponential growth in new spaces, whilst continuing to capitalize on existing incremental sector gains.

Change is the modus operandi through which we all, as leaders, grow our businesses and manage our brands. With the evolution of technology, and in particular AI, this shift will only continue to accelerate.

At Interbrand, we utilize our total understanding of brand economics to build a unique growth strategy for our clients, balancing capabilities and investments across the total marketing landscape, to unlock more consistent, more accurate and more reliable growth, delivered in ways that outperform competitio. That’s incredibly exciting.

I wish to extend my sincere congratulations to all brands featured in this year’s prestigious ranking, especially those who have been present since the start, whose value has increased and to those brands who are joining or re-entering our table.