The most powerful brands in Latvia awarded for the 13th time

On Thursday, 28 September, the Top Brands Awards Ceremony took place for the 13th time at the Palladium concert hall. This year the list of top brands has become richer with two more rankings, honouring not only the most beloved, the most influential and the greenest brands, but also the most brilliant Latvian startup brands and the most powerful employer brands of the region.

Also, this year there was a struggle between Inbox and Google, being at the very top of the Most beloved brands. Each of them won an award - Inbox has been crowned as the most beloved local brand, and Google retains the leading position of the most beloved brand in Latvia and the Baltic states. Unexpected news has been saved for dessert - this year the winner of the Grand Prix was also announced for the first time. The brand, being able to collect the best result, when summarising completely all factors of the assessment, is Dobele - the local producer and export giant.

This year the platform of top brands was supplemented by another two ambitious categories - the first top for Startup brands and the top of Employer brands in Latvia. In the top of startup brands, prepared thanks to cooperation with Accenture Latvia, the show was stolen by the audio software startup Sonarworks, which has been recognised as the most innovative startup brand due to it acquiring international success. The most rapidly growing startup brand appeared to be Printful, but the fintech startup of the peer-to-peer lending platform Mintos was able to create the biggest resonance. What should be presented as a special prize for this category? Of course, a ticket for an experience exchange trip to the startup Mecca, Silicon Valley. This prize, prepared jointly by the American Embassy in Latvia and the startup association Startin.LV, went to the team of Sonarworks, the leader of the startup brands top.

A beloved brand, when selecting goods and services, is one thing. But quite the another is - which of them is the best employer according to the view of public. This was established during the research of the top Employer brands, conducted by the recruiting company Amrop. According to the assessment of managers, potential employees and the public, Latvijas Mobilais Telefons is the leader, outpacing the closest challengers Swedbank (2nd position), AirBaltic (3rd position), Latvijas Valsts meži (4th position) and Latvenergo (5th position). In turn, UPB was declared as the most powerful employer brand with 100% local capital.

Already for the second year in a row, the top of the Greenest brands also continues to grow, in cooperation with Latvijas Zaļais punkts. This year Seal, the company that took second position last year, has been declared as the greenest, outpacing the acquirer of the greenest brand of 2016 - Madara, which took 2nd place this year. The top 3 is completed with the brand Lāči, which has been able to rise by two positions since the previous year. The honour of the most rapidly growing greening brand was acquired by the car brand Toyota, but the startup Ovi Watch earned the prize of the greenest startup brand.

How does one maintain uniqueness nowadays? Youtube marketing specialists definitely know this - Youtube was declared the most unique brand of the year. In turn, the consumers have crowned Nike as the best quality brand. Maxima has taken the position of the most advantageous brand for the second year in a row. The special prize “Brand with Potential” provided by RAIT Custom Research Baltic, the performer of the research of the tops of the most beloved brands, went to the bakery Liepkalni this year, but 360TV was declared as the most rapidly growing brand.

Already last year we established that in Liepāja it is possible not only to breeze out, but also to study the meaningful social media communication. This year the city of Liepāja has again proven to be the most powerful brand on social networks. Similar to Liepāja, also Delfi, the most powerful media brand on social networks, does not draw back from the first place in its category already for the second year in a row.

The patron of The most influential brands in social media ranking, the digital media company Httpool, has calculated that Linkedin is not only a platform favourite among employers, but also the most rapidly growing social network in Latvia. And there are brands that use it particularly skilfully, such as Latvijas Mobilais Telefons, which was crowned as the most active brand on the Latvian Linkedin market. The special prize of Httpool for the most successful global campaign on Linkedin went to Telia Latvia.

In order for the conclusions made during the Brands Award ceremony to serve as stable ground when forecasting risks and business success stories in 2018, it is possible to become acquainted with the methodology of each top, opinions and recommendations of experts, as well as the latest marketing trends in the October edition of Kapitāls. Results of the tops are also available on the webpage www.zimolutops.lv.

The top list of brands has been compiled since 2004, and it is an important point of reference in reflecting consumer attitudes, lifestyles and habits in Latvia and the Baltic states. This year the top list of brands has been prepared thanks to the joint efforts of ten different partners - DDB Consulting, Accenture Latvia, Latvijas Zaļais punkts, Amrop Latvija, Httpool, RAIT Custom Research Baltic, Kapitāls, Startin.LV, Delfi and Labs of Latvia.

An insight into the awards ceremony is published here.