Biggest surprise
The media and financial sectors produced the biggest surprise with obvious media brands such as CNN, CNBC Africa, and Al Jazeera, and the dominant retail banks failing to crack the top 100. Instead, traditional broadcast media such as BBC, which has a long history in Africa and extensive coverage through the BBC World Service radio channel, and DStv, which enables television broadcasts across Africa, feature prominently.
This is probably because this year’s survey reached greater numbers of rural and urban citizens, who appear to have greater reliance on these broadcasters. In a largely unbanked continent, where cash is still the main medium of transactions, financial services hardly figure in most people’s minds.
While social media brands such as Google, Facebook and LinkedIn are among the most valuable, they hardly register at all among the top 100 Most Admired; only Google, at No. 94 makes the list. The results of the Brand Africa 100 illustrate the startling reality of the admiration, inspiration and aspiration a large global brand may bring to the hearts and minds of an emerging Africa. While smaller African brands are slowly building and growing, it is the larger global brands that are able to capture most of the attention. For example, while DStv has continued to expand across the continent, the broadcaster still ranks 20 places below the BBC in terms of admiration and is dwarfed in brand value – with the DStv brand valued at $827m and the BBC valued at $5,033m.
Interestingly, in this survey, respondents spontaneously mentioned countries among the admired brands. Ironically, Africa itself was mentioned as one of the most admired brands.
Of the top 10 most-admired nations (see above), the US ranked the highest. Nigeria, the continent’s largest economy and most populous nation, ranked second. Somewhat surprisingly, South Africa, which was ranked the most valuable African nation by brand value at $270m (ahead of Nigeria at $111m and Egypt at $70m) in the Brand Finance African nation branding list of the most-admired nations by Africans, ranks seventh, behind the likes of Japan, Brazil, China and Ghana (sixth) and Nigeria in second place.
In this year’s ranking Brand Africa 100, South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya, collectively account for 98% of Africa’s most admired brands. However, while the continent is still very much dominated by large multinational non-African brands with their big budgets and innovative products, it remains to be seen whether they will gobble up the emerging African stars or whether it is these African stars, with their direct understanding and connection to people on the continent who will be able to rise above the noise and lead the way.
As African consumers’ incomes and confidence in, and identity with, Africa rise, they will demand and support products that reflect their heritage and accelerate Africa’s development. Thus, brands will remain a key catalyst and measure of Africa’s growth and development.