Best Brands – these are the brands that are commercially successful and trigger certain emotions: brands that shine, that stick in the mind of consumers and are associated with innovation and positive experiences.

Honouring and promoting successful brand management whilst also offering new, future-oriented communication solutions a strong forum: that is the aim of the Best Brands College and the evening’s Best Brands Gala, which has long since established itself as an annual highlight in the marketing industry. The event is hosted at the Hotel Bayerischer Hof in Munich by the Serviceplan Group, GfK - NIQ company (Germany’s largest market research institute),Seven.One Entertainment Group, the Markenverband (the German Brands Association), German publications WirtschaftsWoche, DIE ZEIT, RMS and Media Impact.

The stand-out feature of the event is that the winners are chosen not by a panel of judges but solely by consumers – for the award-winning candidates are determined in a complex, representative study conducted by NIQ/GfK consumer research institute based on two key yardsticks: their actual economic success in the market place and the perceived popularity of their brand among consumers. No other brand ranking currently factors in both these aspects of brand strength.

The Best Brands Awards have been honouring Germany’s best brands since 2004.

In 2021, the structure of the award was completely revised to enable us to flexibly give a platform to the latest social and marketing trends. As well as the annually recurring “Best Brand Overall”, brands from certain areas of life that held a special significance for consumers in that particular year are now also being analysed. This year's categories are "Best Brand Beauty“, "Best Brand Fashion“ and "Best Momentum Brand“.

But the core of Best Brands remains the same: the consumers choose the brands themselves, with “Share of Soul” and “Share of Market” as the cornerstones of a Best Brand.

The highly coveted marketing award is meanwhile also presented in Italy, Belgium, France and Poland.