Corporate Eye

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Archives for May 2011

Apple Steals Top Spot from Google as World’s Most Valuable Brand

In the annual BrandZ rankings of the top 100 brands in the world from Millward Brown, Google has held the top spot for the past four years.

Not anymore.

The 2011 BrandZ Global Top 100 has been released and Apple stole the top spot from Google with an 84% increase in brand value from 2010 vs. Google’s 2% loss of brand value. Click on the preceding link to view the chart of the top 100 brands.

The top 20 brands according to the BrandZ ratings are:

  1. Apple
  2. Google
  3. IBM
  4. McDonald’s
  5. Microsoft
  6. Coca-Cola
  7. AT&T
  8. Marlboro
  9. China Mobile
  10. GE
  11. ICBC (Asia)
  12. Vodafone
  13. Verizon
  14. Amazon.com
  15. Walmart
  16. Wells Fargo
  17. UPS
  18. HP
  19. Deutsche Telecom
  20. VISA

Retail giant Walmart also saw a shift in the 2011 brand rankings. Amazon edged passed Walmart to become the top retail brand in 2011 experiencing a brand value increase of 37% over 2010 vs. Walmart’s brand value loss of 5%.

For the automotive sector, Toyota took back its place as the top car brand on the list after faltering from recalls in previous years.

One of the most interesting parts of the report comes from the biggest brand movers on the list. Facebook entered the top 100 global brands list for the first time in 2011 at #35 and also ranked first in the list of top risers with a 246% valuation increase over 2010 to $19.1 billion.  On another note, of the 11 newcomers on the list of top brands in 2011, almost half are Chinese brands.

On the flip side, the biggest losers in 2011 are Bank of America with a -43% brand value change in 2011 vs. 2010, Nintendo (-37%), and BP (-27%).

On a positive note, unlike 2010 when only four sectors showed brand value growth due to negative economic conditions across the globe, the 2011 BrandZ ranking shows positive brand value growth in all but three sectors (luxury, apparel, and cars) and many sectors have experienced brand growth that exceeds pre-recession levels.

The BrandZ ranking is always interesting. What do you think about Apple’s #1 ranking? Can the brand hold on or will Google come back in 2012? Where will Facebook be in 2012? Only time will tell, but it’s anyone’s game. Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

Sustainability Reporting in the EU

A couple of weeks ago the EU published the 173 page report “The state of play in sustainability reporting in the European Union“. 

It really is, as Bill & Ted might say, a most excellent, triumphant and bodacious report.

Although it has no Socrates, Genghis Khan (who “enjoys Twinkies because of the excellent sugar rush”) or Napoleon (“a short dead dude”), it is thorough, comprehensive and in depth.

It’s also (unlike Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure) down to earth and realistic. [Read more…] about Sustainability Reporting in the EU

Corporate Eye Summary May 7, 2011

  • Accounting for Sustainability | A Lost Jewel?
    What does December 6th 2006 mean to you?  Is it that it’s the anniversary of the independence of Finland from Russia, or Eire from the UK? Or is it some event which happened on that specific date: NASA declaring that it had evidence of liquid water on the surface of Mars, or the election of […]


  • Google Advertises Chrome on TV in Biggest Offline Marketing Investment Ever
    You might think it’s strange that one of the biggest internet brands is advertising its web browser product in television commercials, but in actuality, it’s a perfect example of how important integrated marketing is for all businesses — even the biggest web company. In a new series of commercials, Google tries to connect its Chrome […]


  • Whole Investor Relations – Allowing Your Company’s Culture to Show
    I recently had the pleasure of speaking to the Austin chapter of the National Investor Relations Institute about the intersection between academic theory as taught in business school and the real life practice of investor relations. It is perhaps my favorite topic to speak about. I am fully convinced that there are quite a number […]


  • SEO for Brand Facebook Pages and Twitter Profiles Lacking
    New research from BrightEdge Technologies reveals that the vast majority of branded Facebook pages and Twitter profiles do not appear in the top Google results for keyword searches on the corresponding brand names. More specifically, BrightEdge analyzed the top 200 brands in the world and found that nearly 100% own the top Google search result […]


  • Corporate Eye Summary April 30, 2011
    Not A Royal Wedding Post You didn’t think you’d get away without a Royal Wedding post, did you? Anyone who’s spent any part of the last couple of weeks awake, here in the UK, is well aware that a young couple are getting married today. It is rare that an event is of such significance […]


Online Video Advertising Will Steal Significant Budget from TV and Display

For the third year in a row, BrightRoll (a leading online video advertising services provider) conducted an online video advertising study among ad agency executives. The report reveals significant shifts in advertising spending in 2011 particularly for online video advertising, which is growing faster than all other online advertising categories. In fact, budget shifts to online video advertising are coming primarily at the expense of television and online display advertising budgets.

Six out of ten ad agency executives who responded to the BrightRoll survey indicated that they believe the targeting capabilities of online video advertising makes it more effective than or as effective as television ads. 86% reported they are shifting investments in online display advertising to online video advertising in 2011, and 64% said they would shift at least part of their television advertising budgets to online video advertising. Search, social media, and direct response advertising budgets aren’t safe from the allure of online video advertising either. Nearly 30% of ad agency executives who responded to the BrightRoll survey indicated they planned to shift budgets from search, social media, and direct response advertising to online video advertising.

Overall, ad agency executives who responded to the survey indicated that the most common increases in ad spending in 2011 will be in online video advertising (28%), mobile media (27%), and social media (25%).

There are several reasons why ad agency executives and their clients are focusing on the potential for online video advertising and making the necessary investments to leverage the medium. The BrightRoll study revealed that behavioral targeting capabilities of online video advertising are what makes the medium so vital to their marketing plans with 41% of respondents citing this as the most valuable attribute of the medium. Reach (23%), ad unit format (19%), price relative to television (10%), and the ability to reuse creative (10%) were viewed as less valuable but still important.

It’s the behavioral targeting capabilities of online video advertising that has the advertising world so excited. The BrightRoll study reports that advertising executives believe behavioral targeting is most important for online video advertising success (28%) followed by contextual (24%), demographic (21%), and content (10%) targeting.

When it comes to purchasing online video advertising space, buying directly from online publishers is the most common method of purchasing inventory (52%), followed by buying from ad networks (31%), broadcasters (10%), portals (6%), and ad exchanges (2%).

Online video advertising is still a fairly new medium but it’s growing very quickly. It’s safe to assume that the online video advertising market will look very different in a couple of years. The question is whether or not your brand will be an early adopter and learn to leverage its capabilities now or if you’ll be trying to catch up later.

What is your company doing in the online video advertising space? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

Image: stock.xchng

Accounting for Sustainability | A Lost Jewel?

What does December 6th 2006 mean to you?  Is it that it’s the anniversary of the independence of Finland from Russia, or Eire from the UK? Or is it some event which happened on that specific date: NASA declaring that it had evidence of liquid water on the surface of Mars, or the election of Joseph Kabila as president of the Democratic Republic of Congo?

Or is it just the day for giving presents to children: St Nicholas’ Day or Christkindl, depending upon your Christian denomination?

Or maybe, just maybe, you were one of 200 lucky people who were at St James’ Palace, attending the launch of The Prince of Wales’ “Accounting for Sustainability” (A4S).

You have to feel a little sorry for the Prince of Wales.  His heart is obviously passionate about so many things yet because of his constitutional position he can’t really follow through fully on some of his projects.

I’m not going to knife and fork the organisation’s output but the diagram above and the key elements from A4S’s 2007 report (PDF) are worth highlighting.

[Read more…] about Accounting for Sustainability | A Lost Jewel?

Google Advertises Chrome on TV in Biggest Offline Marketing Investment Ever

You might think it’s strange that one of the biggest internet brands is advertising its web browser product in television commercials, but in actuality, it’s a perfect example of how important integrated marketing is for all businesses — even the biggest web company.

In a new series of commercials, Google tries to connect its Chrome browser with human experiences and develop an emotional connection between users and the branded experience. Watch two of the commercials in the new “the web is what you make of it” campaign for Google Chrome below.

It’s a smart move and marks the biggest offline marketing investment that Google has ever made. The Chrome browser is chipping away at market leader Microsoft Internet Explorer market share, and the company believes that getting more people to use Chrome will lead to greater loyalty and use of other Google products, particularly Google’s search engine.

The New York Times reports that Google spent some time talking to internet users in New York City and asking random passersby what a browser is. Surprisingly, most didn’t know the answer and even fewer realized that there are different browser options available to them. You can see for yourself in the video below.

Clearly, education has to be an important part of Google’s marketing strategy, particularly when casual internet users are unlikely to see the value of downloading a different browser unless the benefits are clearly communicated to them. It doesn’t seem like a big leap to assume that people who are happy with Chrome will use other Google products, particularly since Google does such as great job of integrating its products. It all goes back to education though. Will these television commercials be enough to motivate people to switch to Chrome? For more web-savvy people, the answer is probably yes, but for the less technically adept users, the shift might not be easy.

What do you think? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.