•  Sony Playstation, Rügenwalder Mühle, booking.com und DHL win in four award categories.
•  Former German Federal President Joachim Gauck, sport stars Ana Ivanović and Bastian Schweinsteiger and presenter Linda Zervakis shape gala event.
• 19th Best Brands Award ceremony again as a live event in Munich.

Munich, 26th April 2022 — They are the strongest brands of the year: On 26^th of April, the Best Brands Awards Germany were presented at a festive gala in Munich. In Germany's only study-based brand award, Sony Playstation won "Best Brand Overall," Rügenwalder Mühle received the prize for "Best Brand Food & Beverages," and the online travel portal booking.com succeeded in the "Best Brand Travel" category. DHL secured first place as "Best Hybrid Brand".

After the award gala was held digitally due to the pandemic last year, it could now be carried out again as a live event for its 19th edition. Around 450 invited guests from business, retail and the media, as well as numerous celebrity guests, attended the gala evening at the Hotel Bayerischer Hof in Munich to celebrate the winners in the four categories. The gala was hosted by TV presenter Linda Zervakis.

After the welcome by Michael Müller, President Northern, Central and Eastern Europe at GfK, former German Federal President Joachim Gauck opened the event with a keynote speech on the topic of responsibility and courage and was then interviewed on stage by Dr. Rainer Esser, Managing Director of ZEIT Verlagsgruppe. As a further highlight of the evening, the sports power couple Ana Ivanović and Bastian Schweinsteiger spoke live on stage with Linda Zervakis about personal branding, their work as brand ambassadors and what it takes to become a successful brand yourself.

During the day, the Best Brands College took place virtually in the Seven.One Entertainment Studios with presentations by top-class speakers on the topic of "Building Best Brands in a Hybrid World", presented by TV-host Daniel Boschmann.

Photos of  College and Gala you can find here.

Best Brands is jointly organized as a partner event by GfK, Seven.One Entertainment Group, Markenverband, WirtschaftsWoche, ZEIT Verlagsgruppe, RMS Radio Marketing Service, Media Impact and the Serviceplan Group.

Florian Haller, CEO Serviceplan Group: “The pandemic has changed markets, consumers and brands: What consumers expect from brands that accompany them through everyday life has become even more stringent as a result. Today, service orientation, good relationship quality and a consistent brand experience across all touchpoints are more important than ever. All Best Brands winners have understood this perfectly, and I am very pleased that we were able to celebrate them in person at a festive gala."

The Winners:

Best Brands is the only marketing award that measures the strength of a brand on the basis of a representative empirical study by GfK according to two criteria: the actual economic market success – the so-called "share of market" – and “share of soul”, the attractiveness of the brand in the perception of consumers.

Last year, the structure of the awards was fundamentally revised in order to provide a platform for both socially relevant topics and marketing trends. Besides the annually recurring category "Best Brand Overall," this year's awards honored "Best Brand Food & Beverages," "Best Brand Travel," and "Best Hybrid Brand”.

Sony Playstation is the Winner in the "Best Brand Overall" category for the very first time this year, after a strong 2nd place in the category “Best Consumer Electronic Brand” last year. The gaming brand is an absolute love brand for the consumers surveyed, with a strong brand experience at all touchpoints. The second place was taken by last year's winner Bosch and the third place by Samsung

The award for "Best Brand Food & Beverages" went to the plant-based products of Rügenwalder Mühle. With its combination of tradition and innovation, the brand captures the spirit of the times with its vegan and vegetarian foods. Organic brand Alnatura came in second place, ahead of the salty snacks from Funny-Frisch.

The third category is dedicated to the tourism industry, which was hit hard by Covid-19. The online travel portal booking.com was named "Best Brand Travel" with consumers appreciating its high level of service orientation, among other things. The top three are completed by tour operator TUI and cruise brand Aida Cruises.

The fourth category "Best Hybrid Brand" is dedicated to brands that succeed in seamlessly linking the virtual and real worlds in their brand experience. DHL, the logistics and transport company, came in first here, with consumers attesting to its good contact quality both online and offline. The winner was followed by Media Markt in second place and "Best Brand Overall" winner Sony Playstation in third place.

About Best Brands:

The Best Brands Awards have developed into the industry event of the year for business, retail and media since its inauguration in 2004. Best Brands is the only marketing award based on extensive representative studies by GfK to measure the strength of a brand according to two criteria: actual economic market success – the so-called "share of market" – and “share of soul”, the attractiveness of the brand in consumer perception. This means that consumers decide on the winners instead of the subjective judgment of a jury.

Further information on Best Brands can be found on the Website.

Impressions and information about Best Brands can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.

The accompanying hashtag is: #BestBrands