Humberto Conference recap: Brand Z US Top 100 Brands 2018

There is a revolution going on in today’s society in how companies and brands sell products and services to their consumers and the type of relationship the company has with their consumer. In turn changing the way advertising and messaging comes across in today’s world. As before it was just show the product and list it’s features and from there you decide if you want to buy it or not. There was no concept or storytelling in order to create a more meaningful connection and creativity in order to break through the noise. Before the 1930s. There was not much distraction going on. The radio was invented and the television was not far off.

The major breakthrough came when Edward Bernays the father of public relations made major breakthroughs implementing psychology into his methods. His notable clients were P&G and many in the tabacco industry. These was an early revolution into how companies viewed and sold their products and services. Now jump forward to the 21^st century. From the 80s all the way until about 2012 there was a steady and clunky implementation of digital into what was the traditional Ad campaigns. It was still heavily dominated by print and tv spots. It wasn’t until the rise of social media that things really evolved and revolutionized the way brands have a relationship with their consumers.

Brand Z US Top 100 brands of 2018 was an interesting conference to attend. It was held in the New York Stock Exchange. The conference was about all the top US brands in 2018 according to Brand Z which was hosted by WPP. Using the data that has been compiled and explaining the insights and hidden truths to why a certain brand is successful and if it can be emulated. 

The speaker at the beginning was Tim Wragg CEO of Kantar’s Insight Division North America as the introductory speaker. As he spoke he said a very interesting quote  “The US is definitely the land of the risk takers… where fortune favor the brave and the creative and the people who go out and do those things” This statement rings true today. As the internet rose and gave rise to e-commerce and social media. Those brands at the beginning were pioneers going through uncharted territory. Exploring new horizons. Amazon for example was just an online bookstore.

Through Amazon’s mistakes and breakthroughs that they learned throughout their history has now made it one of the most successful and recognizable brands in the world. Google can be another example of exponential growth with how they connect with the consumer. The Google brand is now so synonymous with information gathering and searching that it is now a verb. “just google it” It is part of our everyday life when we need to search for something on the internet. All we say is just google it.

As the conferences went on they showed video of the top 100 brands on a global scale for each country brand z keeps record of. It was very interesting to see how some brands are in the top internationally. One of the presenters talked about politicians and how they are essentially brands themselves. One quote that really stood out for me was “world's most loves politician now is Justin truedeu and I think we're beginning to see a new era a new genre a new generation of politicians emerge on the stage the game are much more socially aware and that's something that we as brands have to be also aware” Just as politicians need to be socially aware, Brands need to be as well. Brands are getting so big and have such influence in the social sphere that things that they do will be looked at through a microscope. Today people will be loyal to brand that align with their values.

One of the panelist was the owner of the oral care product Hello. His approach to his brand was to create that emotional connection and personal attention to redefine personal care. “really part of our give back. Our give back is making better products they’re as natural we can make them and that is really worth it that everybody can afford, yeah, that's a big part of it so we think that is a big emotional connection the way we engage how engage where we engage” Brands are part of society and can help be a change for good. Aligning with good values and being socially aware in the world around them and how they speak to their consumers.