Google Named World’s Most Powerful Brand

Google has been named the world’s most powerful brand, with new research valuing it at $86.1 billion.

The research by Millward Brown, which is owned by WPP, found that the value of all brands in its top 100 list increased by 21% from $1.6 trillion in 2007 to $1.94 trillion in 2008, more than double the increase experienced the previous year.

General Electric came second in the BrandZ rankings, at $71.4, while Microsoft was in third place with a value of $70.8 billion.

Vodafone was the most powerful British brand for the third year in a row, with a value of $37 billion.

Eileen Campbell, global CEO of Millward Brown said: “We’ve been tracking brand equity on WPP’s behalf for 10 years, so we know what hard work it is and what a fantastic achievement it is for any brand to achieve BrandZ Top 100 status.

“We’d like to congratulate these companies for their extraordinary performance and commitment to the power of great brands and the role that effective marketing plays in building them.

“Particularly in a challenging global economy, we were delighted to see such high growth, reconfirming our assertion that sustained marketing support is a winning strategy, even in tough business conditions.”

The survey, based on an analysis of consumer opinion and publicly available financial data, ranks the most powerful brands by their dollar value.

Millward Brown: www.millwardbrown.com