The UAE’s Federal Climate Change Law, effective from 30 May 2025, and the Saudi Capital Market Authority’s (CMA) directive for ESG reporting are more than compliance requirements – they are the new battleground for business growth and brand dominance.

Regulatory shifts: what’s changing?

The UAE’s Federal Decree-Law No. 11 of 2024 is a game changer. It mandates that both public and private sector entities, including those in free zones, must measure, report and reduce carbon emissions. Companies are required to publish time-bound climate action plans, establish internal climate governance structures and align with national climate goals.

Meanwhile, the KSA CMA is planning to move from voluntary to mandatory ESG disclosures for listed companies. This directive aligns with global standards and aims to enhance transparency, investor confidence and long-term value creation. The anticipated shift to mandatory reporting signals a broader regional trend toward embedding sustainability into the core of corporate strategy.

Business impact: compliance and beyond

These regulations demand that businesses invest in ESG data infrastructure, including systems for emissions tracking, sustainability reporting, and third-party verification. Companies will need to upskill teams, engage with ESG consultants, and potentially restructure operations to meet new benchmarks.

But let’s be clear – this is not just a compliance burden. It’s a strategic opportunity. Businesses that proactively embrace these changes can differentiate themselves, attract impact investors, gain preferential access to green financing, diversify to new consumer segments and harness growth opportunities from a growing consumer sentiment that brands that do good are good brands.

And consumer sentiment towards social and environmental expectations on brands is steadily building. To help businesses navigate this evolving landscape, Kantar, the world’s leading data and analytics company, offers the Sustainability Sector Index report (SSI), that provides a robust understanding of consumer expectations on sustainability issues by sector across markets, enabling brands to strategically prioritise their focus and investment. In KSA, the SSI reveals that 79% of consumers believe that people like them need to do whatever they can to fight climate change. And 81% want to fight social inequality and injustice. This presents a significant opportunity for brands to align their strategies with these values.

Growth opportunities for brands

If businesses think about these regulatory shifts as more than just a compliance and risk reduction exercise, a world of opportunities and commercial gains opens up.

1. Access to capital. ESG-compliant firms are more attractive to institutional investors and sovereign wealth funds, many of which are aligning portfolios with ESG principles. Are you equipped to tap into this capital?

2. Public-private partnerships. Governments in both the UAE and KSA are offering incentives, grants, and carbon offset mechanisms to support climate-aligned business models. This creates fertile ground for collaboration and innovation. Are you ready to partner for progress?

3. Sustainable innovation. Brands that develop low-carbon products, circular economy models, or green technologies will be well-positioned to lead in a market increasingly driven by environmental performance. Are you ready to innovate or will you be left behind?

4. New market segments. The rise of green and socially conscious consumerism opens doors to new product lines – eco-friendly packaging, carbon-neutral services, and ethical sourcing are no longer niche but mainstream expectations. Is your brand ready to meet these consumer demands?

5. Reputation and trust. Transparent ESG reporting builds stakeholder trust. Companies that lead in sustainability can enhance brand equity, as consumer values are shifting. Is your brand ready to be a leader?

Visionary brand leaders

And there are already visionary brand leaders in the region that we can learn from.

Al Rajhi Bank, the most valuable brand in the 2024 Kantar BrandZ Most Valuable Emirati and Saudi Brands ranking, has leveraged its strong brand equity to integrate sustainability into its core operations. By focusing on sustainable finance and aligning with Vision 2030, the bank has enhanced its reputation and attracted sustainability-focused investors.

In response to the introduction of the sugar tax and VAT in KSA, PepsiCo has focused on sustainable product innovation and marketing strategies that resonate with health-conscious consumers. This approach has helped the brand regain market share and strengthen its position in the region.

As the fastest riser in the 2024 Kantar BrandZ Emirati and Saudi Brands rankings, Tawuniya has capitalised on the growing demand for sustainable insurance products. By offering eco-friendly insurance options and promoting sustainability initiatives, the company has enhanced its brand value and customer loyalty.

Using ESG commitments as a platform for brand growth

As the UAE and KSA position themselves as regional leaders in sustainability, businesses that act early will not only ensure compliance but also unlock competitive advantages. The shift toward mandatory ESG reporting is a clear signal – the future of business in the Gulf is green, transparent, and accountable.

For brands, this is a moment to lead – not just in meeting regulations, but in shaping sustainable brands and a more green, equitable and resilient economy. Are you ready to seize this opportunity?

Brands grow by being meaningfully different. Brands that are meaningfully different to more people command 5 times penetration today – and real advantage in penetration growth over time. Your brand perceptions on sustainability will either inspire or inhibit your brand growth. So how do you find your path to building Meaningful Difference on sustainability?

ESG strategies and internal sustainability commitments provide a foundation and a springboard. But brands can’t just take existing ESG initiatives and jump straight into brand communication or innovation, without connecting activation with consumer expectations, brand purpose and sector context – or efforts will fall flat.

Think of it like decorating a house without creating a solid structure. It may look good temporarily, but cracks will appear over time – and your audience will notice. Consumers today are savvy and they are fact checking brands. In fact, 50% of KSA consumers say they have seen, or heard, false or misleading information about sustainable actions taken by brands across sectors, affecting trust and consideration.

So, to reap commercial rewards, brands must bridge the gap between corporate level ESG commitments and brand level marketing activation, which starts by developing a sustainability-aligned brand strategy – a crucial step that too many businesses skip. This can be achieved through meaningfully different sustainable marketing.

What meaningfully different sustainable marketing looks like and how to get started

If your brand is ready to move from intention to action, here’s a roadmap to follow for meaningfully different sustainable marketing:

1. Start with ESG, but don’t stop there – use your existing corporate sustainability commitments as a starting point but recognise that not all issues and initiatives will be relevant to consumers.

2. Understand your sector – leverage validated data and insights from Kantar’s Sustainability Sector Index to evaluate consumer expectations, values and behaviours specific to your industry.

3. Know your brand – conduct an honest assessment of where your brand stands on environmental and social sustainability in consumers’ minds. Are you seen as part of the solution or part of the problem?

4. Build a sustainability-aligned brand strategy – this bridges the gap between ESG commitments and brand marketing, ensuring your efforts are credible and consumer-centric.

5. Activate Meaningful Difference – create communication, innovation, and experiences that resonate with consumer values and needs, backed by data and rooted in purpose.

6. Measure and iterate – track your progress with the right brand equity metrics and adjust your strategy as expectations and market dynamics evolve. 

In markets like the UAE and Saudi Arabia, where regulatory landscapes are shifting and consumer sustainability expectations are rising, the stakes are high. Brands that act with intention and insight can not only navigate these changes but turn them into a competitive edge. Ultimately, the path to sustainable brand growth isn’t about doing everything that’s in your ESG strategy – it’s about doing the right things, in the right way, for the right reasons. And that starts with listening to what consumers are really asking for.

McDonald’s also retains its position in the top five, with its success bolstered by its continued innovation, including its use of artificial intelligence (AI) for scenarios such as dynamic menu boards and order prediction, demonstrating how non-tech brands are also exploring AI to unlock growth. Illustrating the nascent power of AI in everyday life, NVIDIA leaps 18 places to the No.6 position in the 2024 ranking with a brand value increase of 178%. Facebook rejoins the Top 10 after a one-year absence, while Oracle joins the Top 10 for the first time. 

This year’s BrandZ ranking underscores the resilience of top brands, with the total brand value of the Global Top 100 rebounding 20% to reach $8.3 trillion, close to the 2022 peak of $8.7 trillion. Since its launch in 2006, the brand value of the Global Top 100 has increased 474%. The threshold to join the Top 100 has increased 354% from $4 billion to $19 billion.

Top 10 Most Valuable Global Brands 2024

Martin Guerrieria, Head of Kantar BrandZ, explains, “With its $1 trillion brand valuation, Apple has proven resilient in testing market conditions, justifying premium prices and proving that meaningful, different and salient brands are best placed to weather global economic disruption. Our 2024 global report reveals that strong brands thrive despite global economic uncertainty. This year, brands investing in AI are seeing remarkable gains by reaping the benefits of enhanced customer experience. But effective marketing takes many forms, whether via great content, new innovations, effective media strategy, savvy pricing and more. Crucially, investment in effective marketing helps to improve consumer predisposition and drive brand value growth, contributing significant dollar value to support sustained business success.”

Top performers highlight AI and consumer value

Alongside NVIDIA, AI-titans Adobe and AMD also made impressive gains, securing a spot among the Top 20 Risers with brand value increases of 66% and 53% respectively. Together, with resurgent growth for Instagram, Facebook and Uber, these companies highlight how technological innovations can drive consumer engagement and accelerate growth.

Success stories across category rankings

Throughout the 13 category rankings, notable shifts across various industry sectors spotlight a variety of attributes helping to drive brand equity:

• Alcohol: Corona has become the most valuable beer brand. Consistent acceleration of growth globally and tapping into growing markets, like Brazil, China and South Africa while maintaining its stronghold in Mexico have been key factors to its success.   

• Apparel: Nike retains its No.1 brand position in Apparel, but the gap between competitors has narrowed. Zara’s 47% growth made it the second biggest riser in terms of rank change in the Global Top 100, rising 24 places to No.70. Lululemon’s innovative approach to athleisure and commitment to quality delivered 24% brand value growth, lifting it into the Global Top 100 for the first time. 

• Luxury: Louis Vuitton remains the most valuable brand in the luxury category with a brand valuation of $130 billion. Hermès has also excelled by enhancing its exclusivity and premium pricing, thriving in both US and Chinese markets, leading to a 23% growth in brand value.

• Media & Entertainment: Netflix reached new heights, climbing to No.4 from No.6 in the category. Its increase in brand value of 51% was driven by unprecedented subscriber growth, as well as a password-sharing crackdown, highlighting the streaming service’s confidence in the strength of its customer predisposition.

• Retail: Amazon retains its position as the most valuable retail brand with a brand value growth of 6%. Behind this, innovation around product accessibility, as well as pricing sensitivity to changing consumer behaviors delivered strong performances for Lowe’s, Aldi, TJ Maxx, as well as regional e-commerce giants Pinduoduo and Mercado Libre.

The Kantar BrandZ Most Valuable Global Brands 2024 report, including the Global Top 100 and 13 category rankings and extensive analysis are now available here.

With a brand valuation of $880bn, Apple has proven resilient in the face of testing market conditions, justifying premium prices with positive perceptions, and proving that meaningful, different, and salient brands are best placed to weather global economic disruption. Google and Microsoft complete the top three, with technology brands, once again, the most represented in the Top 100 and commanding the largest share of brand value.

Commenting on the launch of the report, Martin Guerrieria, Head of Kantar BrandZ said, “This year’s results – despite the fall in aggregate value – are, in fact, a continuation of the long-term growth trend for brands, which began following the global financial crisis of 2008 and continued up until the start of the pandemic in 2020. While the market has proved volatile and been greatly impacted by global macroeconomics, consumers’ view of brands has proved far more stable – the most valuable brands in the world remain as highly regarded as ever. The lessons for brand owners and marketers remain clear; effective marketing investment and long-term thinking are vital to your business’ growth prospects. Those brands consistently investing in establishing strong consumer connections are now much better placed to navigate the current volatile conditions and deliver a greater degree of resilience for their shareholders”. 

2023 Kantar BrandZ Top 10 Most Valuable Global Brands

Key highlights from the 2023 report include:

• 16 brands grew in brand value across the Top 100 – with Airtel (No.76; +24% and Pepsi (No.91; +17%) achieving the highest brand value growth vs 2022.
• Nine brands returned to the Top 100 – including Colgate (No.95), Sony (No.99) and Pampers (No.100).
• Two new Chinese brands joined the Top 100 ranking for the first time – Shein at No.70 and Nongfu Spring at No.81.
• The Luxury, Fast Food and Food & Beverages categories proved to be the most resilient to market fluctuations.

• Brands improving their ability to justify a higher price than competitors, based on the strength of their equity with consumers, grew at twice the rate – adding 67% to their brand value over the last four years.
• Sustainability remains an untapped opportunity for brands – only 2% of the most valuable global brands are perceived as ‘leading’ in this area.

2023 success stories

Pepsi’s brand value has soared 17% year-on-year, reaching a total value of $18.8bn and taking Pepsi back into the global ranking at No.91. Defined by great advertising, the brand has grown its price premium positioning in the US while being considered a ‘value’ brand across the rest of the world. Coca-Cola (No.10) showed great resilience, increasing its brand value by 8% and breaking back into the Top 10 for the first time in seven years.

TikTok (No.41) is still perceived as the second most disruptive brand in the Top 100, behind Tesla (No.25). Tesla continues to be considered a true game-changer, ranking No.1 in the Automotive category, with a 2023 valuation of $67.7bn. Outside the Top 100, Ferrari makes its debut in the Top 10 Automotive brands with a valuation of $7.8bn, increasing demand and perceived value to consumers even through the most challenging market conditions. Emerging brands competing in the EV space, and which are likely to gain value in the future, include Polestar, Li Auto, and Genesis.

Food & Beverage brands demonstrated the most resilience as an overall category, declining just 3% year-on-year. Doritos proved the value of its superior taste messaging, ranking No.19 in this category, with a brand value of $5.4bn – one of many brands in this year’s report that shows functional benefits can be the key to outperforming competitors.

Fast Food was the second-highest-performing category. Brands that outperformed in this space include Burger King, Chick-Fil-A, and Starbucks. Resilience in the industry is being fuelled by greater exposure and better experience. Burger King, for example, cut drive-thru times with menu simplification and digital boards and invested more heavily in brand communications. The brand has been rewarded with a 2023 value of $7.7bn, an increase of 8% compared to last year.

Luxury brands retained their allure even with steady, incremental price increases. Louis Vuitton is the only luxury brand in the global Top 10, rising two places to No.8, with a brand value of $124.8bn. Dior is the fastest-growing brand in the category, increasing its brand value by 9% to $11.4bn. The category’s strong overall performance highlights the excellent job luxury brands are doing at leveraging their distinctive assets to drive higher demand and pricing power, despite economic challenges.

“Brands need to continue investing in brand-building, product, and market diversification to grow. This year’s results clearly show that, even in the current macroeconomic environment, it remains possible to find growth in any category and territory with the right strategy focused on establishing and maintaining strong connections with consumers. BrandZ analysis proves that perceived difference is a key predictor of share growth; promoting any sense of difference and making it more known and more relevant to consumers will boost brand value in the long-term,” said Guerrieria 

The report covers brands in categories ranging from banking, real estate, airlines, and communication providers to retailers, food delivery services, skincare, video entertainment, and dairy products to find out what sets apart those brands that have succeeded from those that have simply stayed afloat.

Brand growth is not hostage to brand size, category, or the marketplace. Even in these difficult times, one in ten brands has been able to grow that all-important relationship with consumers by tapping into new, emerging needs with timely innovations, riding the wave of technology adoption in making consumers’ lives easier, and communicating effectively with their consumers.

When Kantar published its 2020 Kantar BrandZ Top 30 Most Valuable Emirati and Saudi Brands report a year ago, many of us hoped that COVID-19 was already in retreat and things would quickly get back to normal. But the reality turned out to be rather different.

That’s why this year, the Kantar BrandZ Spotlight Report into how brands in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are faring takes a slightly different approach, which seems befitting of the extraordinary times we’ve been living in.

Kantar BrandZ findings are usually based on two key contributors to brand value: financial value and brand contribution. Financial value is the proportion of the total dollar value of the parent company that can be attributed to the brand in question, considering both its current and future performance. Brand contribution quantifies the proportion of this financial value that is directly driven by a brand’s equity. This is the ability of the brand to deliver value to the company by predisposing consumers to choose the brand over others or to pay more for it, based purely on perceptions. Together, these two factors give a dollar figure for the brand value of each brand assessed.

“This year, we’re looking at more than 250 brands through the lens of equity and consumer perceptions alone. We are setting aside financial valuations and, instead of providing a dollar-based ranking of the most valuable brands, we shine a light on how consumer sentiment towards brands has changed between 2020 and 2021. This provides insight into how people feel coming out of a difficult year, and how winning brands have adapted to changing consumer behavior,” explained Amol Ghate, Managing Director MENAP Insights Division at Kantar, in a statement.

By taking a deep dive into why some brands have positively thrived in the past year while others have declined and most have simply managed to tread water, Kantar BrandZ has garnered rich learnings into what drives brand equity and how that looks in the real world.

Key findings

Four levers set growth brands apart from the rest: convenience, innovation, value, and communication:

• A brand that shines when it comes to convenience is one that fits seamlessly into people’s lives. It’s an easy choice to make because it’s in the right place, at the right time, with the very thing someone needs or wants. A convenient brand offers a great experience, whether that’s online or offline – or possibly both online and offline at once. It offers a range of products and services that provide a good match with what people are looking for, and what it offers is well designed for easy and enjoyable use. Noon, with its extensive marketplace of goods, is widely seen by consumers as fitting well into everyday life and being a brand that will grow in importance. Noon VIP, offering free next-day delivery and priority customer support, offers delivery within 90 minutes through its new Noon Insta grocery service, launched during the pandemic. Talabat is another growth brand this year. Already the region’s largest online food ordering service, the brand has helped develop cloud kitchens for online-only restaurants.

• Innovation must be more than simply something new because while novelty has its place, to have a lasting impact on consumers’ perceptions of a brand, innovation must be meaningful. So, it must be something new that is relevant and helps improve people’s lives. Saudi telecommunications giant STC has earned a reputation for innovation, having expanded its extensive 5G network, created the “STC pay” digital wallet, and launched both an STC Internet of Things platform as well as the gaming and e-sport platform, STCplay. Careem is another brand powering growth through meaningful innovation. Originally developed as a ride-hailing app, Careem has expanded to become a one-stop shop that handles food & drinks deliveries, bus rides, and anything else that involves reliably and comfortably getting people and products from A to B. The business was acquired by Uber in early 2020 and looks to other categories for inspiration in providing the most seamless user experience possible.
• As Warren Buffett famously said, “Price is what you pay, value is what you get.” Consumers with all levels of income have a keen eye for a bargain, but that’s very rarely the least expensive option. Being a great value brand means being clear about why you charge a premium. HungerStation’s list of partners grows daily and includes over 10,000 restaurants, supermarkets, pharmacies, and florists. The brand’s Fazaa personal shopping services and Quick Market grocery delivery option have helped HungerStation further embed itself in people’s lives at a time when, because of the pandemic, deliveries shifted from being a luxury to a necessity.

• Just as value isn’t about being the cheapest, strong communication isn’t about shouting the loudest. It’s about landing a memorable message that’s relevant both to the brand and to consumers. A brand’s share of voice is usually indicative of its market share, and when share of voice is higher than market share, growth is usually the result. The food and beverage brand Almarai serves as a powerful example of the growth that’s possible when communication, backed by innovation, is done well. In 2020, the brand further increased its investments and focused on media efficiency as part of its communication strategy, at a time when the pandemic led many brands to cut back on their investment. The brand had something to say that was relevant to consumers’ lives and delivered its messages in memorable ways. It created buzz, not just noise, about innovative new products such as Greek drinking yogurt, packaged hummus, and Farm Select 100% Premium Fresh Juice.

People are returning to travel, office life, learning, shopping, and leisure activities in the physical world to satisfy the deep human need for real-world interaction, but many of the newly acquired digital habits will stick as they’ve proven to be both convenient and efficient. The new normal will therefore be a blend of both worlds, and the brands that thrive will be those providing a seamless experience straddling the two.

2021 Kantar BrandZ Saudi & Emirati brands special awards

At the digital launch of the 2021 Kantar BrandZ Saudi & Emirati brands, Kantar BrandZ acknowledged the following brands that rose to meet the challenges brought on by the pandemic and guided the way towards the next normal:

• The Convenience Award acknowledges how well brands fit in people’s everyday lives. This year’s special award goes to Noon.
• The Meaningful Innovation Award focuses on innovations that add true meaning to consumers’ lives. This year’s special award goes to STC. ​
• The Value Award celebrates the combination of price and benefit. This year’s special award goes to Saudia Airlines. 
• The Purpose Award is all about making people’s lives better. This year’s special award goes to Talabat.

“This is a tremendously exciting time for brands. Challenges remain, of course, and COVID-19 is still with us. But this region offers many reasons for businesses to be confident that better times are coming. Opportunities are there to be seized. After all, building a strong, resilient, and growing brand is a long-term project, to be worked on in good times and bad,” said Aruna Rajaram, Director Brand, Insights Division at Kantar.

Download the report here.

Over $2 trillion in brand value was added year on year – that’s a 42% rise and clearly indicates that strong brands still deliver great returns for businesses. We're also seeing the rise of new challenger brands. These brands leveraged different factors like opportunities created by shortages/shipping delays which opened up consumers' consideration sets; the willingness to try new brands since other forms of novelty were scarce. However, established brands have also risen to the challenge and have done very well. Overall this creates more dynamism in the market and more choice for consumers.

Consumers worldwide have become increasingly interested in products with local provenance. “Buying local” is seen to support your own community, furthermore “local” brands are associated with desirable traits like quality and authenticity. Chinese brands continue to show that they are still a force to recon with as they added +131% in value and doubled in brand power. Maintaining brand exposure by continuing to communicate through the pandemic helped brands grow salience. The focus on home life has created new needs around managing stress, navigating “me time” and redefining convenience. Many of these needs are here to stay and brands which are navigating them well, now and in the future will stand to gain.

We saw new demands on corporate responsibility in the wake of Black Lives Matter protests. High growth brands have a stronger reputation for sustainability and purpose. Through the study, we discovered that meaningful difference continues to deliver strong returns. Brands need to stay meaningful by continuing to ask themselves – are you connecting with your consumers emotionally and also delivering on their needs?. And also drive difference by ensuring your brand feels different to rest of the brands in the category and by being a trend setter.

Boost your brands mental and physical availability to ensure consumers can ‘find’ you. It's important to always be on the lookout for the “salience gap” – a discrepancy between how well the brand is known and how meaningfully different it is perceived to be. There are many cases where brands that ignored the gap and continued to let it widen have fallen by the wayside – a classic example being Nokia.

[The consumer experience is more crucial than ever.] Get the experience right – these days brands are as much defined by their logistics as by their products. On-demand, omnichannel commerce has fully arrived, and with it comes a new set of consumer expectations which brands need to be mindful of.

One thing that we noticed in the data was that it's important for brands to continue to disrupt the system.This year’s BrandZ data clearly shows that faster growing brands are perceived as much more disruptive than the rest. It’s a great way of ensuring brands remain meaningfully different.

Another way for brands to be meaningfully different is to inspire strong perceptions around brand purpose. This years' BrandZ data again clearly shows that faster growing brands are perceived to be much more socially and environmentally responsible than the rest. Brands with a strong sense of purpose are perceived as ‘making peoples lives better’ and inspire feelings of ‘pride’ and ‘connection’ in consumers.

Based on the insights from the study, what can you tell about how brands have adapted their strategies/values in the post-pandemic world?

Brands that have been disruptive, kept a pulse on consumers’ evolving needs and addressed those needs, have ensured they have remained meaningfully different. By continuing to amplify that meaningful difference, they have ensured consumers to choose them above others even in difficult times.

But let me also give some specific examples here:

• American fast-food chain Chipotle, married a smartly updated, high-tech ordering app, with a very old-school convenience concept – drive-through – to create  its category-leading “Chipotlanes” concept. These rolled out nationwide just in time to satisfy consumer demand for more “low-touch” pickup options during the COVID-19 pandemic.
   
• TikTok’s path to becoming this year’s second-biggest riser is also based on human insight. Social media isn’t new, of course, and neither are short-form videos. But  TikTok’s algorithm is a genuine breakthrough, for the way it embraces surprise, chance and discovery. This emphasis on exploration – rather than the same old  predictable grids – proved a perfect match for a year when many were stuck at home and looking for something new.
   
• This was also a strong year for many brands in the apparel category, with labels like Nike, Puma, and Lululemon taking advantage of consumer demand for more active, wellness-centered products. Of the world’s major global fashion brands, Uniqlo was best positioned for the shift toward stay-at-home living – with its technical innovations like Heattech and Airism helping the brand to straddle the line between athleisure and loungewear.

Apart from McDonalds, the remaining top 10 valuable brands are all in the tech space. What can we interpret from this?

This has been a big trend over the last decade where we have seen that tech brands have increasingly been featured in the top 10. A large factor in success of these brands has been the ‘ecosystem’ approach they have taken to building their brand. They have transformed from category specific focus into an ecosystem of services, which help people sustain and enrich their daily lives, thus forming strong emotional connection with consumers.

How have you utilised the stock market value of brands in your research? 

Technically we don’t use stock market performance, as we value the brand and not the company (eg the value of Dove and not Unilever). To get to the brand value, we combine financial and market data with primary research data from consumers on their views about brands. This reveals the power of the brand in the mind of the consumer and creates predisposition to buy, and most importantly, validates a positive correlation with better sales performance.

But, having said that our analysis of brands clearly shows that BrandZ Top 100 has consistently delivered stronger stock market returns as compared to S&P500 and other indices. And in fact strong brands also tend to bounce back much faster from downturns, as was seen even during this pandemic.

BrandZ helps marketers and businesses understand the long term value they are creating based on all their marketing efforts. We do see a very strong relationship between this value that brands create and stock market performance of brands. While there can be short term phenomenon as you mention above which can bring down the value of a stock, inherently even stock market reward brands/companies that show strong potential to generate economic value now and in the future. And that is only possible when the companies have strong business models, and assets (brands being one of them). And hence we do see good relationship between the two.  

With brand purpose firmly pinned to the 2021 business agenda, it’s essential to understand what helps brands execute their purpose effectively. Just think of an outdoors brand like Patagonia, which is now in the business of ‘saving our home planet’. It uses resources such as the brand’s voice and broader business model of causing no unnecessary harm while protecting nature, to harness its community of activists to act against the climate crisis.

Little wonder it features in the BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands as a brand truly born out of purpose, but even better in these uncertain times is that our BrandZ data shows brands with strong brand purpose grow in value at a faster rate. So, there’s a strong commercial imperative to having a strong brand purpose, as well as the sustainable consumer imperative of helping society improve consumer buy-in and long-term loyalty.

Get social. Connect purpose to people to win critical moments of truth

Marketers today are effectively operating in bubbles as we work from home in urban capitals, and as the saying goes, “a desk is a dangerous place from which to view the world”. With people not only demonstrating their beliefs on social media but also using the platforms to hold brands accountable, digital data analysis gives brands the opportunity to truly understand people and their psyche. Generated in real time and unprompted, it offers the scale and depth to go beyond stereotypes.

For example, search results show honest interest in your brand solution, while social comments reveal voiced sentiment and reviews offer in-depth testimony. These are all invaluable in understanding both what people want and how well they feel your brand meets those needs. We know there’s overarching concern about the health of the planet and a feeling that what we leave behind for future generations is our responsibility, but your brand purpose may translate into different things for different people.

Combining your digital data sources therefore gives you a more richly detailed portrait of what matters to specific people today, from their areas of affinity to their sources of inspiration based on what they care about and whether they are early adopters of change or the more skeptical, less activism-minded.

So, connect your brand’s broader purpose to how you help people, society or indeed the world, but keep in mind that people today are quick to sniff out inauthenticity. All talk and no action will lose their buy-in, fast. These types of topics can be polarising as they tend to be emotionally charged, so look for the positive spaces, communicate how your brand can really make a difference, then follow Nike’s advice and “just do it”.

The crystal ball moment: How to better predict the future

There’s no denying that COVID-19 served as a black swan event, accelerating some trends that would have otherwise taken years – we’re looking at you, ecommerce. Some brands took advantage of this better than others.

Missed out? Then it’s time to let digital analytics do the hard work, identifying trends and growth opportunities for your business faster than humanly possible, even beyond your current category, because there’s been a quiet revolution of aggregate change in behaviour.

Looking at the macro-factors, digital has taken primacy in both attention and digital media spend as home delivery grew 54% under the initial panicky waves of the pandemic and working from home increased five-fold. There have also been green shoots of commitment to solving more serious environmental challenges which serve a broader purpose. The overall financial impact is clear from disparity in spend between the haves and have nots, with some thriving while others are merely surviving.

But there have also been smaller incremental changes in consumer behaviour, which may or may not persist. This includes the sharp swing towards localism, with farm stalls seeing an increase in sales. There’s also been a shift towards bringing exotic experiences into the home, like learning a foreign language or creating complicated cocktails from your own bar cart.  Working from home also means we’re confronted with our own voice and image on calls throughout the day. This has seen many reinterpret the ‘beauty in the frame’ with acne-related searches rising 20%.

Overall, companies need to become more agile in responding to change. All this disruption means we’re fast approaching the sixth wave of innovation, with disruptors shaking up every market and those first movers largely grabbing and keeping the market share and those in second spot needing to be near perfect. The problem is that a traditional trends approach can’t handle this amount of change. It’s simply too siloed, blinkered and focused on what the company does now, not in the future, with porous country and category behaviours.

Brands therefore need to be fast, look across borders and find new niches and consumers to focus on. Digital analysis assists with robust prediction and macro changes that feed all functions of the organisation in the following six ways:

1. Realise that speed matters: Being first to market helps. Ben & Jerry’s was first to launch its vegan ice cream range in the US in 2016, with Haagen Dazs taking 18 months to release their response. Share of search, which is predictive of share of market, shows both brands have kept these positions over the years

2. Adopt an outside-in approach: Looking across category and geographic borders, near-real time data shows air fryers and magnetic eyeliner both saw dramatic increases in search as the pandemic took hold. Households looked to create more nutritious, delicious meals at home and while minimising time spent on the beauty routine.

3. Identify new or existing niches: Opportunity doesn’t always exist in the new, it’s sometimes in existing places where consumer demand just isn’t being adequately addressed. Smart brands are those that look to search competitiveness for gaps and website sophistication to determine whether others have already colonised the space or if there’s room to move.

4. Understand the balance of supply and demand: Trends are either driven by consumers on the demand side, or competition on the supply side. For example, demand-side consumer trends like increased searches to depuff the eye area will be met by companies launching new eyecare products featuring retinol and caffeine to firm and smooth the skin.

5. Focus on real trends: Factor in seasonality correction as well as changepoint prediction and the uncertainty window to ensure you’re not focused on the wrong trends. You can also add flavour by correcting for outside events affecting the category, such as the COVID-19 skew on baking bread – we now know this was just a temporary hobby that kept many occupied when the pandemic first hit.

6. Factor in granular detail: Zoom out of the macro to understand how the micro factors pool together on broader socio-cultural factors to measure their growth. Look at what’s being spoken about on social media for real-time insight into how people are reacting. This will shed light in data-dark markets where retail point-of-sales measurement is spotty, layering on survey work as well as search and social findings for a more holistic view.

With increased digital consumption’s resulting change in budget allocation, digital analytics will help you reassess your brand’s media go-to-market strategy, seamlessly flowing into other work streams for a real-time read on issues relevant to your category. This in turn removes the grey areas as your team becomes more confident in measuring and optimising your performance and driving digital excellence in your business.

Ultimately, COVID-19 has been a stark reminder that as the world moves faster, we need to be better prepared to identify trends even before they happen to guarantee digital excellence. The speed and scale of digital data make it the perfect vehicle to do so.

Opinions in this piece belong to the authors.

The world is changing fast and along with it, consumer preferences and behavior patterns keep shifting, ostensibly overnight. Marketers need to be at the top of their game to identify these details, even before they happen. So, who do they call in to help? Research firms, who can sift through mountains of divergent data feeds to arrive at conclusions that work, that's who.

Agile insights are critical for brands and marketeers to help make faster and more informed decisions, and the intersection of technology, automation and analytics is helping us change the game on how we engage with clients to address their needs. Primary data is not the only source of data anymore, marketeers have tons of data, often in multiple formats and often from different sources, and in many cases this data doesn’t talk to each other. Simplifying data, bringing data together, and decoding insights from it helps brands get more bang for their buck.

And COVID-19 created a perfect storm for a digital renaissance. We have seen huge strides in this space in 2020 in the Middle East as online became primarily the most reliable way to connect with people and gather consumer opinion – be it through our extensive consumer panels, or tech solutions like chatbots or via blogs and online communities.

We also saw e-commerce gain momentum, with brand purpose and sustainability the new north stars in boardrooms. People want proof of the small, tangible steps your brand is taking to make life a little better for a person, community or part of the world. No one is expecting world peace from their yogurt or an end to global warming from their bank, but actions speak louder than words, and this in turn creates a more credible and achievable brand purpose and results in more sustainable growth. Localism is on the rise, and innovation is now a renewed focus, for brands wanting to connect with consumers and lead the way in their category.

How do you plan to grow Kantar's presence in the MENA region?

Research is increasingly becoming a tool to understand and predict the future rather than decode the past. Marketeers are grappling with questions such as making the most of their media budgets to maximize ROI and create seamless online and offline experiences, and winning at the point of sale – be it online or offline. Our clients are asking questions around how behaviors will change and what trends will stick and shape consumers attitudes.

We are heavily investing in offers like DX Analytics which uses search and social data to segment consumers, and identify and spot trends to help brands monitor digital presence in real time. We are also revolutionizing brand guidance systems by making them more predictive and forward looking with agile solutions that answer business questions timeously. Letting the ‘cat out the bag’, I am excited to announce our upcoming Marketplace launch in the Middle East.

With content and products being developed and launched more quickly than ever before, brands need to know how people are feeling and behaving and anticipate these changes as they happen. Fast, cost effective and robust insight is vital in today's complex, connected and continually changing world, and Marketplace- our automated research platform is built for speed and agility so brands can quickly test their TV and digital to optimize ROI.

Do you plan to introduce programs like the Africa Life Initiative in the MENA region?

[ Authors note – The Africa Lifa Initiative is a unique program that was designed to help clients understand the fast-changing context of the African continent,
which had a great impact across sectors and nations.]

Kantar has similar studies in the MENA region like our syndicated report, Arab as a Consumer (ARAC) and Ramadan Connect, to help guide brands and marketers, and we will continue to bring new offers to answer our clients' business questions. And of course let’s not forget the 2020 BrandZ™ Top 30 Most Valuable Emirati and Saudi Brands report that we launched last year. The study includes opinions of over 12,000 consumers across the United Arab Emirates and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on 343 brands in 19 categories. The ‘Oscars of marketing’, the study reveals the power of the brand in the mind of the consumer and highlights the importance of brand purpose and innovation – that can take a brand from good to great, especially in these times of business as unusual .

What challenges do you expect to face on the road ahead?

Healthy brands sustain business during challenging times. Our BrandZ™ data shows that companies that invest in strong brands during difficult times tend to return to growth faster and more successfully than those that don’t. COVID-19 has changed everything, so it is now more vital than ever to understand consumer strategies in order to look for growth. The key to success during a downturn is to remain focused. Brands should reinforce the attributes that make them appealing and differentiated in the eyes of existing customers, and focus on four things: your competition, brand, customer and communication. If you have a strong successful brand, continue doing what has worked for you so far.

If your brand is in a relatively weak position, try systematically exploiting the strengths you have while addressing your weaknesses. During recessions, consumers and marketers alike must make the best of a bad situation. While not every brand will cut marketing spend, those that do will find themselves at a disadvantage when the recession ends. Marketeers need to make the most of every dollar spent in support of their brands if they hope to maintain strong consumer relationships. Those that succeed should then be well positioned to take advantage of weaker competition when the good times return.

1. Media pivot – where industry changes are forcing a change of direction or approach
2. Media performance – where the increased challenges of measurement and effectiveness are addressed
3. Media people -where we focus on audience and data.

Media Pivot

Audience Behaviors, Industry Dynamics – Stick or Twist?

The lockdown measures implemented worldwide created a drastic change in the consumer's media consumption. Data from Kantar’s COVID-19 Barometer showed that in 30 markets, as the pandemic progressed, claimed media consumption grow across all in-home channels. In April alone, internet browsing increasing by 64%, online video by 54%, and higher social media engagement up by 56%.

But at the same time, many consumers were also worried about their future and the economy and lack of consumer confidence also impacted advertising investments. Advertising spend currency reported a 35% decline in ad revenue for April and May in the US compared with 2019. While some categories invested heavily in more advertising, the travel sector was down by 80% in Q2 as quarantine measures enforced less appetite for travel.

Kantar’s Media Reactions study among global marketers shows that the pandemic is likely to have a lasting impact on ad spend patterns: marketers plan to invest more in digital as we move into 2021, for instance. While consumer behaviors are starting to return to the 'old normal', the stick or twist will vary by audience, media, and category.

E-commerce and Media – Friends or Frenemies?

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated double-digit eCommerce growth globally, with new consumer behaviors emerging. 40% of shoppers are willing to shop online rather than offline and brands have to alter their strategies in order to match this shift. Globally, 58% of consumers use social media and community forums to browse and research about what brands to purchase from. 

The report projects that online-to-offline (O2O) business in China will grow by 64% by the end of the year, with grocery O2O growing at 155%. With consumers spending more time online, browsing through social media and video apps, new eCommerce business models involving live-streaming and the integration of social media and eCommerce (social eCommerce) have grown rapidly and e-commerce giants such as Amazon and Alibaba have already invested in the potential. 

Smaller brands and those targeting the youth market use content platforms (e.g. Facebook, TikTok) and social networks not only to accurately target their consumers and post interesting content but also to convert them into buyers through either their store or an integrated e-commerce engine. These trends have impacted how brands plan their media investments, with more budgets allocated towards digital.

In order to succeed, brands need to achieve an efficient omnichannel media presence to influence consumers across the funnel. They must go beyond upper-funnel activities and use data to activate consumers across the full funnel on social media. The change in market dynamics will help smaller brands capture market share from the giants. Alternatively, the giants need to be more agile and utilize community-powered platforms like Facebook Shop and WeChat social eCommerce in conjunction with influencers during promotion periods. Brands also need to reimagine direct-to-consumer with an omnichannel strategy to provide the right consumer experience.

Democratizing Data

Data has never played a more important role in guiding businesses through uncertainty, especially in the year 2020. Media teams are still trying to navigate the deluge of data as more regulatory permissions and frameworks continue to be introduced. The goal is to create a formal system illustrating how data is going to be shared and used so that marketers can utilize the data they acquire in order to make more strategic decisions. Marketers need to think about quality, focus, and access as the key components of a purposeful data strategy.

The report claims that there is a growing trend towards democratizing data but it’s not moving fast enough. 51% of marketers  still feel that they don’t have all the data they need to make decisions in their roles,

As we enter into 2021, democratizing data further will take many forms. Media professionals need access to data that’s customized to the necessary functionality for decision making – and products need to respond to that need. But acquiring data isn't the be-all and end-all. Marketers must turn data into actionable insights to avoid the paralysis of analysis where we keep going deeper to try to prove everything with the information we’ve got. Brands that invest in an accurate understanding of shifting consumer attitudes towards media channels and brands, alongside their own biases and shifting consumption patterns, will chart a path to growth in the future.

Media Performance

The social media dilemma

The industry is focused on offerings revolving around social media and building relationships with a wider set of influencers. Social media stands as the most cost-effective medium for advertising. It offers creative opportunities to disseminate and amplify paid and earned messaging which was particularly beneficial during the lockdown when brands shifted the ways through which they reach consumers. 

The increase in social ad spend will continue. Story formats, for example, enjoyed a 29% investment increase this year, with expectations to nearly double in 2021. But with 75%  of consumer touchpoints coming from outside the paid media sphere, social media alone won’t build a relationship with your audience. Campaigns are strongest when they reach across multiple channels in a believable and consistent manner.

Emerging digital platforms will gain more importance within holistic communication strategies and overall media planning, as brands embrace more authentic and direct ways to engage with consumers. Influencers will be seen as a long-term strategic opportunity, rather than just a short-term tactic.

Creative context takes center stage

With media consumption habits shifting dramatically and many media budgets shrinking due to COVID-19, where should advertisers place their ads to maximize effectiveness? Realizing anew that where their ad appears is just as important as what it says, advertisers and agencies are swamped with choice and conflicting and contradictory evidence about which placements work best. Context is more important than ever as media spend shifts rapidly across channels.

As digital channels continue to receive more investment in comparison to the traditional mediums, advertisers feel less confident in their overall media mix (now only 49% confident, down from 56% in 2019). But it’s not dampening enthusiasm for change, with many marketers (53%) now ‘more willing to try something new’. Some 96% believe the pandemic will have long-term strategic implications: primarily an increased focus on campaign effectiveness and more investment in digital media for greater agility.

The latest developments in digital contexts should appeal to advertisers, with TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat being popular advertising environments for consumers, and delivering exceptional brand-building performance.

In the race to stand out in increasingly cluttered media environments, advertisers and agencies will accelerate their adoption of the latest media channels and formats. Content creators will need to focus their efforts on the platforms that provide the best value for them, rather than trying to customize content to every platform. Online video will be the single biggest winner, and there will be continued growth in the higher-reach digital video environments like YouTube.  Brands and their agencies must invest more time and effort in the careful adaptation of content across contexts. Increased emphasis on purpose across all channels will result in advertisers and agencies holding media partners to higher ethical standards than ever before. They will be seeking like-minded corporate partners as well as media environments that match their own brand-level aspirations.

Infused analytics

In 2020, consumers went through waves of heightened anxiety and disruption due to COVID-19. This led to a 40%+ increase in purchases across hygiene, health, groceries, and online entertainment services in China. The pandemic has accelerated consumers’ re-evaluation of the brands they buy, heightening their expectations in terms of social justice and environmental responsibility. Brands need to predict how best to align campaign messaging to signal trust and integrity while communicating brand values and building long-term equity.

Analytics infuse all aspects of media and communications: campaign messaging, creative optimization, and selection of media channels/platforms that will resonate most. Brands and organizations also express a greater need for analytics to guide an optimal mix of touchpoints and channels – going beyond paid media to include sponsorships, brand partnerships, influencer content, PR, and owned brand assets: the very channels where consumers show greater receptivity towards advertising

The report predicts significant growth in the media industry’s use of analytics to drive optimal investments as media and marketing professionals adapt strategies to deliver results with smaller budgets. Ensuring your brand is top-of-mind in the short-term while strengthening core brand equity will be key to a balanced strategy, making trade-offs between levers to align with consumer receptivity. There will be a more central role for corporate sponsorships, experiential events and philanthropic efforts that generate earned media opportunities to reach consumers. 

Tough cookies

There's no question that the death of the third-party cookie will disrupt the advertising industry but the impact is still not yet fully understood. While 2021 is the year that digital ad spend is forecast to become truly dominant globally, the digital ad world gets tougher to target and measure. Google’s Chrome browser will phase out cookies over the next 18 months or so, and Apple will only allow access to consented users’ IDFAs (Identity for Advertisers) from early 2021. This exacerbates uncertainty as to how exposure data can be derived to assess campaign effectiveness.

Research from Kantar reveals a slightly greater concern than last year about the impact of a cookieless world, but most especially among media owners (publishers), where 64% are worried. Some 48% of marketers worry their companies won’t be able to provide impactful performance without cookies. And yet, only 40% indicate their companies are preparing for this. Consumers on the other hand are conflicted 54% like advertising tailored to them while 56% are concerned about privacy.

The report predicts a new, hybrid world of ad effectiveness measurement in 2021. Direct integrations with publishers can gather exposure data on permissioned panelists in an anonymized and privacy-compliant way where possible. But where publishers aren’t ready, validated probabilistic and analytics-based modeling at scale will fill in the gaps. The major platforms will continue to offer digital effectiveness and targeting solutions based on their own siloed data, but this won’t answer advertisers’ more holistic campaign effectiveness questions. In this new paradigm of regulatory-led privacy initiatives, alternative measures like fingerprinting and plug-ins will only be effective in the short term.

Media People

The Boomerang subscriber

2020 has seen numerous new entrants to the subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) space, driven by the allure of regular, reliable income that these business models are designed to bring. However, consumers increasingly see SVOD platforms as interchangeable. The boomerang consumer is born and these platforms will need to win their loyalty in order to survive. 

With the SVOD space increasingly crowded, the streaming wars have entered a new level. Quibi called it quits before completing a year, wellness outfit Peloton is incorporating VOD into their customer-centric health offerings, Disney and HBO are skipping theatrical releases for streaming. Many of these developments are essentially trials, but early positive consumer reaction means they’re likely to stay.

Some 74% of SVOD subscribers mainly watch new series. But with content now available across multiple platforms, and a finite amount consumers are willing and able to spend, they increasingly need to make a choice: increase their number of paid subscriptions, switch from one platform to another, or dip in and out.

With the boomerang-subscriber trend set to increase, the role of the content aggregator will take center stage. Partnerships are key to survival which provide consumers the benefit to not have to subscribe individually to multiple services. Partner commitments from subscribers must be carefully judged, as these often mean fewer options to chop and change; nothing drives down advocacy faster than a consumer’s needs being unmet and no easy exit. This is no longer a winner-takes-all market, and collaboration will be essential for long-term success.

The audience in the stream

Media companies need to reach, engage and keep their audiences in a fast-changing market as the gaps in understanding the total audience continues to grow. Investment in how people are consuming content is no longer enough; it’s crucial to understand the audience behind the screen too. While broadcasters have experienced record viewing levels this year – they’re also expanding video-on-demand (VOD) offers to ensure audiences can access their premium content whenever, wherever, and on whatever screen they want.

Although viewing trends have gradually returned to pre-lockdown levels, co-viewing is still prevalent, and the report predicts that the audience overlaps between streaming platforms will grow.

Media trading currencies must reflect the reality and totality of audience behavior. Content providers and platforms must work together in response to changing audience behavior to ensure media planning and buying is based on the totality of the audience. This is ever more pressing as media companies like Disney move their streaming business to the heart of their growth strategy.

From activism to action

In these extraordinary times, brand purpose has never been more important. Kantar's Brand Z study finds that acting responsibly is the single largest influence on a brand’s reputation (49%1). Brands see activism as a way of connecting meaningfully with consumers, who tend to take a strong activist stance when deciding to buy something. This stance is a trend that has been accelerated by the coronavirus pandemic.

Social media’s role in brand activism is clear. With 78% of consumers using consumer-generated media as a source of news and information, it provides a unique space where consumers can become informed and engaged and express their views in a radical way. Brands have also become radical and work with recognized influencers aligned to their cause.  But it can be risky and alienate consumers

As advertiser boycotts such as #StopHateForProfit have shown, a far closer alignment between what brands claim and the channel mix was chosen is increasingly important. Brands should consider how social platforms with critical mass can support your brand activism agenda, using influencers who align with your values.

In 2021, the shift from talk to action will move up a gear and this applies to brands as well as media owners; 41% of marketers believe that many online platforms don’t balance the right to free speech with a need to protect the safety of its users and advertisers.

Communicate had an exclusive chat with Amol Ghate, CEO Middle East, Insights Division, Kantar to learn more about  how to approach the brand building process in the post-pandemic world.

What key themes from­­­ the BrandZ list can we carry into the post-pandemic market?

In this [edition of the] BrandZ study, we focused on five key themes which should be carried into the post-pandemic era:

(a) Building meaning via a connect with consumers

(b) Innovating for growth

(c) Ensuring seamless online-offline experience

(d) Building purpose

(c) Addressing diversity

We found that all the five themes continue to remain relevant and in fact will be heightened in post pandemic times. The fact remains that brands still need to focus on knowing the consumer and being meaningfully different.

Will the world of branding undergo any massive changes in its approach in the post-pandemic world?

Branding is all about knowing the consumer and being there for them at the time when they need you. It is about recall value and coming to mind when a consumer thinks of a certain category. This will continue to exist.

Predisposition has become even more important; more so now since consumers are not spending as much time browsing and experimenting with different brands and shopping has become a quicker activity. They are on auto pilot mode and seek familiarity with the brand. Therefore, it is even more critical that the brand remains strong in the consumer’s mind.

Situational context is different and that might need some changes and tactical adaptation. For example, certain aspects such as health & hygiene have heightened even further, and brands will need to ensure they are playing on the right codes.

Consumer targeting is another aspect that is required to evolve since consumer behavior has changed and they are not doing the same things that they used to do.

What challenges do you believe we’ll face when it comes to changing our approach towards branding in the post-pandemic world? 

One thing we cannot ignore is the relevance of online presence and the consumer behavior shift to online. Additionally, since the consumer is straddling between the online and offline world, brands would need to ensure that they provide a seamless online and offline experience.

How do we build strong and resilient brands in the post-pandemic era? 

The only way brands can reach consumers is by being meaningfully different, ensuring that they amplify it and stay relevant to consumers at all times.

Let’s imagine a hypothetical universe where Covid-19 didn’t happen. Would the world of branding have undergone any dramatic changes? If so why? Alternatively, if not why?

It’s interesting to note that Covid-19 has accelerated some of the trends we were already seeing – whether it is about use of e-commerce or digital payments and openness to them or the increased awareness about health & wellness. But other than that, the tenets of branding will continue irrespective of the world we are in today. Having said that, this pandemic has taught us that brands can no longer fly blind, they can no longer be complacent and no longer follow status quo. They need to be ready for evolution.

The study focused on branded hashtag challenges – where brands trigger user-generated content by issuing challenges, by studying he metadata of over 60 TikTok Branded Hashtag Challenges across 16 markets. The study digged into views, viewers, as well as shares, likes, and comments. Here are the three major findings from the study –

TikTok creates engagement on an enormous scale

• It is clear that TikTok attracts big numbers. Hashtag Challenges can have incredible reach. The most successful challenges have surpassed iconic TV moments and the most viewed YouTube adverts.
  
• A branded hashtag challenge for a soft drink in Japan recorded 52 million unique user video views, almost as many as the record TV audience (60m) for Japan v Scotland.

“Hashtag Challenges, first and foremost deliver scale…you can’t find engagement like this on any other platform,” Carolyn Nephew, Senior Manager, Performance Media, Reckitt Benckiser.

TikTok is perfectly placed to trigger engagement

• Tik Tok’s success owes to its combination of different elements Kantar’s study of 223 adverts, across an enormous range of categories, revealed the winning features of the most successful ad campaigns. The most important differentiators are celebrities, social media hashtags, voiceover, character, and music.
• All these elements play a key role in success on the platform. Influencers and creators who are considered to be celebrities on the platforms are the ones who launch the challenge.
• The hashtag gives the challenge a life beyond Tik Tok and on the general social media landscape.
• The platform not only encourages voiceover but offers a range of effects.
• Every hashtag challenge video features a real person with an authentic character.
• Music is a unique strength on the platform that has helped not only the creator but also the artist of the track reach new heights.
• Sound is turned on by default in TikTok. Audio cues are always present, and hashtag challenges can tap into the emotional response and memory formation that music evokes. The powerful effect of music is integral to engagement.
• The things that make certain adverts superpowered are baked into the experience of TikTok.

TikTok requires new and different thinking

• The behaviors needed to make the most out of the platform are fresh and unique.
• The features on the platform make it unique and hard to compare to other platforms.
• There is a huge opportunity for brands to into the powerful audience response on the platform but it’s crucial that they understand the platform and engage with users on their own terms.