Plastics propel world’s most powerful brands to the top

Plastic bricks favoured by children and adults the world over have been propelled to the top of a new evaluation of the globe’s most powerful brands.

LEGO has been advanced to the top spot thanks to the release of the LEGO Movie in 2014, overtaking automotive giant Ferrari, according to Brand Finance, the consultancy behind the findings.

The firm evaluates brands to determine which are the most powerful and the most valuable. LEGO, it says, scores highly on a wide variety of measures, including familiarity, loyalty and corporate reputation. The cross-generational appeal of the film based on the product has “helped propel LEGO from a well-loved brand to the world’s most powerful” says Brand Finance.

The most valuable brand in the world goes to Apple, where consumer demand for products has helped the tech giant set records for both quarterly profits ($18bn) and company value ($710bn).

 “Apple has a remarkable knack for using its brand to popularise, and hence monetise, existing technology, as it did so successfully first with the mp3 player, smart phone and later the tablet,” said Brand Finance’s David Haigh.

The company, which released a one-piece, polycarbonate version of its ever-popular iPhone in 2013, uses plastics in several of its major product lines and is expected to use millions of flexible Plastic OLED displays for its forthcoming Apple Watch.