MTN retains spot as Africa’s Most Admired Brand

MTN has emerged as the Most Admired and the Most Valuable African brand, valued at US$ 4,672m, its second award in two years.

Brand Africa announced last night at the 4^th Annual Brand Africa 100: Africa’s Best Brands gala event, that MTN is the overall best brand on the continent and reclaims the #1 spot as the Most Admired Brand in Africa.

“We are humbled by the recognition, and dedicate this award to our employees and customers, who continue to make MTN the best brand in our markets. For us, this award is recognition of our unwavering commitment to make a positive change and brighten the lives of our customers and many others in the communities where we operate,” says Albert Fernandez, MTN Group Chief Consumer Officer.

The Brand Africa 100 shows that established brands in Africa have held their ground. Non-African brands are a dominant 77% of the Top 100 brands. While African brands have remained relatively stable at 24%, 25% and 23% in 2013, 2014 and 2015 respectively. The number of non-African countries of origin has steadily diversified from 17 in 2013 to 19 in 2014 to 21 in 2015.

Two thirds (64%) of the Brand Africa 100 list is evenly spread between electronics (16%), apparel (14%), auto manufacturers (13%), telecommunications (11%) and alcoholic beverages (10%).

“Once again MTN has proven to be the standard by which to measure how to build a pan-African brand. They have established a rapport with the African consumer that is the foundation for long-term success built on a quality brand, great campaigns and a singular promised delivered. They are authentically the Grand Prix of world-class African brands – Africa’s Best Brand,” says Thebe Ikalafeng, Founder and Chairman of Brand Africa and Chairman of Brand Finance Africa.

“These rankings are increasingly significant as they are an important metric of the progress Africa is making in creating brands and services that respond to African conditions, needs and ambitions. Simultaneously, they are a reflection and celebration of both non-African and African brands that meet the African consumer standard,” he adds.

MTN is the most pan-African brand among the Top 100 Most Admired Brands in Africa, operating in 17 countries and among the Top 10 admired in 7 African countries.

Top 10 Most Admired Brands in Africa

#1 MTN (South Africa) (+1)

#2 Samsung (+1)

#3 Coca Cola (-2)

#4 Nike (+6)

#5 Adidas (+2)

#6 Nokia (-2)

#7 Airtel (+4)

#8 Toyota (-3)

#9 LG (0)

#10 Mercedes Benz (+7)

Top 10 Most Valuable Brands – African

#1 MTN (-13%)

#2 DSTV/GoTV/Multichoice (2%)

#3 Safaricom/Mpesa (4%)

#4 Dangote (22%)

#5 Tusker (14%)

#6 Glo/Globacom (-3%)

#7 Zenith Bank (35%)

#8 Golden Penny Foods (-)

#9 Orijin (-)

#10 Star Beer (-).

( ) Represents numerical change in rank between 2014 and 2015.

In recent years, MTN has won a number of brand awards. These include being named the only African brand in the 2014 BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brand ranking, the only South African company on the World Champions list and the Most Admired and Most Valuable Brand in Africa, in the 2014 Brand Africa 100 ranking of the most admired and most valuable brands in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Brand Africa 100 was developed by pan-African branding and reputation advisory firm, Brand Leadership Group in partnership with Geopoll, the leading mobile survey platform with a database of nearly 200m users in emerging markets, TNS, the globally respected consumer knowledge and information company and Brand Finance, the world’s leading independent valuation consultancy.