There’s No Business Like Show Business And It’s All Show Business

Michael Hedges June 23, 2021 Follow on Twitter

Brand values continue to reach stratospheric levels. Common wisdom holds that brand values have risen on consumer cues. For others it is simply related to investment froth. This has been good for media brands, not so much for energy companies.

The Kantar BrandZ rankings, released this week, place Amazon on top once again. It’s no surprise. Is this a tech brand? A retail brand? A logistics brand? A media brand? Release yourself from those minor distinctions. Amazon is a very big brand, valued by Kantar at US$684 billion, up 64% year on year. Quite soon founder Jeff Bezos will quite literally blast through gravity in a personal spaceship.

Analytics provider Kantar, principally owned by advertising/marketing conglomerate WPP and private equity firm Bain Capital, has produced the BrandZ report and analysis for a decade and a half. Its analytics are always interesting if a bit stilted toward business school language. A point made this year is that value is enhanced by expanding category more than brand. True to that, the media and entertainment category has expanded - and grown - significantly. The BrandZ report is published annually just ahead of the Cannes Lions International advertising festival.

Kantar places Amazon in the retail category. Apple, number two, is also huge, yet again. Its brand value is estimated at US$612 billion, up 74% one year on. Apple is categorized as a consumer technology brand. Both companies offer audio and video products.

Ranked number three is Google, valued at US$458 billion. Kantar BrandZ categorizes it as a media and entertainment brand. Google sells advertising, but that is not today a BrandZ category. Google subsidiary YouTube, also part of media and entertainment, is separately ranked 39th. Google swapped places with Microsoft in the rankings this year. Microsoft is not in media or entertainment thought subsidiary LinkedIN is, valued at US$35.5 billion.

Chinese brand Tencent ranked fifth by Kantar BrandZ. It does video games, music streaming and the WeChat message service, clearly media and entertainment. The Tencent brand is valued at US$241 billion, China’s most valuable.

Facebook, number six, is also listed as a media and entertainment brand, valued at US$227 billion. It, too, sells advertising. Its Instagram subsidiary, also media and entertainment, is ranked 18th with a brand value of US$83 billion. US telecom AT&T placed 14th overall. Next year it will no longer be connected to the media and entertainment world when it exits WarnerMedia.

Iconic streaming video brand Netflix is valued at US$71 billion for 24th place, certainly in the media and entertainment sphere. One of the few legacy media brands on the Kantar BrandZ list is Disney, ranking 33rd, down from 22nd one year on. Chinese social media rave TikTok, definitely a global brand, ranked 45th, valued at US$43.5 billion. Chinese tech company Baidu ranked 77th as a media and entertainment brand for its quite popular search engine, not to forget artificial intelligence. Social messaging brand Snapchat ranked 82nd, also sitting in the media and entertainment category.

Debuting at 99th on the Kantar BrandZ list is audio streaming brand Spotify, valued at US$19.3 billion. The Spotify brand continues to make business miserable for radio broadcasters. Automaker Tesla also debuted on this years BrandZ list, ranking 47th, brand value rising a stunning 275% year on year. While not part of the media and entertainment category, Tesla founder Elon Musk is popular and entertaining on social media. He, too, is racing to space.

See also...

• Hot Topics - Streaming Media

• Hot Topics - Walt Disney Company