Serviceplan Looks to the 'Next China' at the 'best brands China' Awards

The “best brands China” award is organised by the Serviceplan Group, Europe´s largest independent communications agency, jointly with GfK, the world renowned market research organisation. This year CE China, the international brand show for consumer electronics held by IFA, joined as a new marketing partner. The award gala in The Waterhouse presented the 2016 winners of the four best brands categories and was enriched with catching presentations from keynote speakers from Tencent (Jeff Kwek), DiDi (Shu Sun) and Youthology (Kevin Lee), providing marketing insights on successful branding in “Next China”.

“best brands enabled us to see how branding and communication in China changed. From a pure follower of the West to a country which gives nowadays the tone and the direction in the branding industry. All our winners tonight stand for this new movement and they all play a dominant role in creating the ‘Next China’,” said Marc Finsterlin, Managing Partner of Serviceplan China.

The winners of the 2016 best brands award are:

# Best Disruptive Brand # Winner: Airbnb

# Best Emotionally Bonding Brand # Winner: BMW

# Best Digital Economy Brand # Winner: Wechat

# Best Consumer Electronics Brand # Winner: Huawei

The topic of best brands 2016 edition is “Next China” and is supposed to shed a light on the changing mindset of the Chinese consumer, new trends, movements, and innovations. With technological advancements giving way to swift globalisation across China, evolvement of a greater openness can be seen, as well as a change of the Chinese consumer to become one of the most sophisticated, global, fast-adopting, and most recently, demanding consumers in the world. Speaking the complex language of the Chinese consumer is a complex task and a very dynamic topic. In the time of DiDi, Tmall, and many other tech-driven disrupters and game changers, the traditional communication and shopping channels are getting more and more obsolete and make immediate action for many brands essential. The “Next China” will be exciting but challenging at the same time for all of marketing players in China. 

“The winners of 2016 best brands China impressed us a lot with their great branding work in China,” stated Marc Finsterlin of Serviceplan. In all categories leading brands with an extraordinary brand presence in China have won in their categories. Brands who clearly understand the demand of consumer in the “Next China”. Brands who tell a unique story and use a smart set of communication measures that distinguishes them from their competitors.  

“As smartphones continue to be widely adopted around the world, we are witnessing a global trend where technology has become part of mainstream culture. As one of the world’s top smartphone manufacturers, we are delighted that our devices are seen as not only empowering but also enriching consumers’ lives. However, what’s more important is that our brand is inspiring more people to challenge themselves and that’s incredibly exciting,” stated Glory Zhang, CMO of Huawei.

The marketing awards were introduced in China the first time in 2014. It is the first brand ranking in China to take a comprehensive view of exclusively the consumer’s opinions, evaluating it based on both emotional and behavioral dimensions – creating transparency and objectivity. For the 2016 awards GfK developed their consumer survey on a scientifically designed and structured questionnaire to get the real insights to how consumers feel and think, targeting a representative sample of 2,400 consumers.

“best brands believes in a consumer centric approach as it is the most genuine and telling. We greatly appreciate the support from the marketing community in China, and are looking forward to a continuous support to the Chinese marketers by providing insights and best practices at the best brands China awards in the years to come,” added Marc Finsterlin.