Winners Announced at 20th Anniversary of the Best Brands Awards

The winners have been revealed: During a ceremony marking the 20th anniversary of the Best Brands Awards, Germany’s only study-based brand award, the strongest brands of the year were honoured. In addition to LEGO winning 'Best Brand Overall,' dm-drogerie markt received the award for 'Best Corporate Sustainability Brand.' The most successful brands of recent years were honoured in the 'Best of the Best Brands' category. The winners are LEGO, Nivea, and Bosch.

The winners in the three award categories, along with the other rankings, can be found in the graphic.

Around 550 guests from business, retail and media, as well as numerous celebrity guests, attended the Best Brands Awards Gala at the Bayerischer Hof in Munich. The evening was hosted by TV presenter Linda Zervakis.

After a welcome by Florian Haller, CEO of Serviceplan Group, the night opened with a keynote speech by big wave surfer Sebastian Steudtner, who inspired the guests with his fascinating success story. He spoke about courage, challenges, team spirit, and self-belief. To realise his childhood dream, the Nuremberg native moved to Hawaii despite all odds against him. Today, he holds the world record by surfing a wave of over 26 meters.

Another highlight was the live interview by Christoph Amend, editorial director ZEITmagazin and publisher 'Welkunst', DIE ZEIT, with Brazilian photographer and environmental activist Sebastião Salgado. As founder of the organization Instituto Terra, Salgado fights against environmental destruction. For years, he has placed himself at the service of replanting and revitalising his Brazilian homeland. His efforts have met with success, and rainforest areas have been restored to thousands of hectares.

JAN DELAY & DELAYDIES feat. DJ MAD got the crowd going at the end of the evening with a musical performance. 

The evening gala was preceded by the Best Brands College during the day, with the theme of 'Best Brands never stop moving: Successful brand management in times of change.' The daytime event, with lectures by top-class speakers, took place live again this year in the House of Communication of the Serviceplan Group. Among the speakers were author and visionary Christoph Keese, and the management team Nadine Bartenschlager and Catherine Niebuhr, who share the position of Marketing Director of NIVEA Germany/Switzerland. Daniel Boschmann presented the college for the third time.

The 'Best Brands Awards' are organised jointly as a partner event by; GfK, Seven. One Entertainment Group, Markenverband, WirtschaftsWoche, DIE ZEIT, RMS Radio Marketing Service, Media Impact and the Serviceplan Group.

Florian Haller, CEO Serviceplan Group, commented, “Courage and the willingness to learn from challenging times and embrace change is what makes brands successful in the long term. It is the factor that unites all our winning brands, including their ability to strike a balance between tradition and innovation, between technological strength and empathy. They communicate clear brand values, create trust, and thus become personal companions for people over a long time period.”

About the winners

Best Brands is the only marketing award that measures the strength of a brand based on a representative empirical study by GfK using two criteria: the actual economic market success – the so-called 'share of market' – and 'share of soul', the attractiveness of a brand as perceived by consumers.

In addition to the annually recurring 'Best Brand Overall,' since 2021, brands from specific areas of life that were particularly important to consumers in the respective year have been analysed. This year it was the 'Best Corporate Sustainability Brand.' To honour the particularly successful brands of recent years, the Best Brands Award was also presented in the category 'Best of the Best Brands' to mark the 20th anniversary.

This year, LEGO won the 'Best Brand Overall' category. With an emotional strategy – by collaborating with Hollywood studios like Star Wars and Marvel, connecting the digital and actual (game) realms, and creating holistic experiences in the LEGOLAND parks – LEGO reaches target audiences across all generations. Of all the brands surveyed, LEGO has the highest brand loyalty.

The 'Best Corporate Sustainability Brand' was awarded to dm-drogerie markt. The attitude, along with ecological, social, and economic sustainability, is authentic to its consumers and can be experienced throughout the company's day-to-day operations: from the development of a completely CO2-neutral retail brand to initiatives for plastic avoidance to investments in employee satisfaction or covid-19 testing and vaccination offers in the stores. dm-drogerie markt is, in the eyes of consumers, a brand that delivers what it promises.

The special award of the evening, the award in the anniversary category 'Best of the Best Brands,' went to three winners: LEGO, Nivea, and Bosch. The long-term success of the winning brands relies on the fact that they strike the right balance between tradition and innovative strength, emphasise powerful brand experiences and emotions, communicate brand values, and invest in digitisation. As a result, they keep their finger on the pulse of the times and create trust and credibility among consumers.