Best Brands Awards 2025

The gala at the Hotel Bayerischer Hof in Munich was attended by around 550 high-calibre guests from business, trade and the media as well as numerous celebrities. After a welcome address by Michael Müller, Managing Director NIQ/GfK Germany, journalist and presenter Linda Zervakis hosted the awards ceremony. The keynote speech was given by former Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin on the topic of ‘Leading Together: Building a Resilient Future for the Next Generation’. Musician and producer Fritz Kalkbrenner rounded off the evening with a live set.

Florian Haller, CEO Serviceplan Group: “Strong brands create strong communities. They are approachable and at eye level with their consumers. They invest in good relationship quality and emotional, contemporary brand experiences – customized at all relevant touchpoints. As an employer brand, they impress with stable, high-quality and clearly communicated corporate values. This is how the brands honoured today manage to remain successful best brands even in challenging times. My warmest congratulations to them.’

Best Brands College 2025: On the pulse of GenZ

Before the evening gala, the Best Brands College took place today at the Serviceplan Group's House of Communication in Munich. The umbrella topic for various presentations and panels by renowned experts was: ‘On the pulse of GenZ: How brands and employers can win over this generation.’ Newsfluencer, presenter and activist Fabian Grischkatgave a keynote speech on the topic of ‘Stop talking – How GenZ is shaking up the labour and consumer market’. The final highlight was a panel discussion with rapper and actress Nura and Head of Hip-Hop at Amazon Music Sehriban Cirik on the topic of ‘More than beats & rhymes: Reaching GenZ with hip-hop as a mindset’. The Best Brands College was once again hosted by Daniel Boschmann.

Pictures of Gala and College can be found here.

The Best Brands Awards are organised as a partner event by NIQ/GfK, Seven.One Entertainment Group, Markenverband, WirtschaftWoche, DIE ZEIT, RMS. Der Audiovermarkter., Media Impact, WallDecaux and the Serviceplan Group.

About the winners of the Best Brands Awards 2025:

As Germany's only study-based brand award, Best Brands determines the most successful brands of the year on the basis of a representative study by NIQ/GfK. The brands are assessed on the basis of two key criteria: their commercial success and their emotional resonance with consumers.

In the ‘Best Brand Overall’ category, the award went to Nivea, as it did in 2024. The traditional brand scored again with its consistently good brand work, in which it preserves its familiar brand essence while at the same time charging it with modern attributes. Another decisive point is the strong emotional identification of consumers with Nivea as a strong brand at eye level.

In addition to the ‘Best Brand Overall’ category, brands from various areas of life that play a special role for consumers in the respective year have been honoured since 2021.

This year's focus included the GenZ and their favourite foods. ESN - Elite Sports Nutrition took first place in the ‘Best Brand GenZ Food & Beverage’ category. In its communication, ESN focuses on approachability and community involvement – the result: high popularity ratings among a young target group. The community focus in particular successfully appeals to GenZ.

The BMW Group was honoured with the top spot in the ‘Best Employer Brand’ category. The basis for the victory is an innovative working environment, combined with good working conditions and investment in modern communication through high-quality employer campaigns.

Patek Philippe takes first place in the ‘Best Luxury Brand’ category. The Swiss family-owned company stands for high craftsmanship and cross-generational customer loyalty like few other brands. The principle that ‘a Patek Philippe never belongs to you alone – you actually keep it for the next generation’ sets the brand apart and creates a long-term emotional bond with its customers.

About Best Brands:

Since 2004, the Best Brands Awards have become the industry event of the year for business, retail and media. The brand award is now also presented annually in Italy, Belgium and Poland. Based on an extensive representative study by NIQ/GfK, Best Brands is the only marketing award that measures the strength of a brand according to two criteria: the actual economic market success – the so-called ‘share of market’ – and the attractiveness of the brand in the perception of consumers, the ‘share of soul’. This means that it is not the subjective judgement of a jury that decides the winners, but exclusively the consumers.

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

You can also find impressions and information on Best Brands at Instagram (@bestbrands.germany). 

The accompanying hashtag is: #BestBrandsGermany