The BrandLaureate

The BrandLaureate is a branding foundation that aims to improve branding practices and standards throughout the world. In conjunction with the Asia Pacific Brands Foundation, the organisation presents the BrandLaureate Awards. The BrandLaureate Awards recognise world-class achievement in branding amongst individuals and companies.^[1]

The BrandLaureate is considered a thought leader in branding practices amongst local companies and a champion of entrepreneurship and innovation.^[2] The organisation holds a large membership of small and medium enterprises and plays the role of connector to this community through award dinners, publications and regular networking sessions.^[3]

BrandLaureate Awards are given in three main categories: corporate, product and individual. Corporate and Product awards honour large and small-and-medium-sized brands and products which have achieved dominance in their particular niches, and are honoured in the annual BrandLaureate BestBrands Awards and BrandLaureate SMEs BestBrands Awards respectively.^[4]

Individual awards, on the other hand, are presented on an exclusive one-off basis to leaders who have achieved greatness for their contributions to the development of their organisations, countries or the world at large. Some of the recipients of the BrandLaureate Award include Hillary Clinton, Nelson Mandela, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, Tiger Woods and Michael Schumacher.^[5]

The BrandLaureate also publishes a bi-monthly magazine, The BrandLaureate Business World Review, which aims to capture the heartbeat of branding innovation and cultural change in Malaysia and the world.^[6]

History

The BrandLaureate was founded in 2006. Originally intended to award and give recognition to promising Malaysian brands as part of a national drive to improve branding standards, the BrandLaureate was co-opted as a part of the Asia Pacific Brands Foundation, an organisation which names former Malaysian Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad as Patron and contains many leading business figures on its board.

Over the following three years the organisation expanded beyond its original base. To add to their corporate awards arm, the foundation started awarding visiting dignitaries and celebrities in Malaysia, gaining a reputation as one of a select group of organisations to gain access to high-level political briefings and being trusted as a crucial part of the Malaysian government’s drive to “rebrand the nation” under then-Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi. This proposition was further strengthened with the setup of the BrandLaureate ICON Awards in 2011, an award that honours many of Malaysia’s most prominent nation builders and national heroes.

As of August 2013, The BrandLaureate has awarded 127 international brand personality recipients and is scheduled to host the first edition of The Brand Laureate Awards, Singapore chapter in October 2013.

Categories of Award

International Awards

The core of The BrandLaureate’s business is the presentation of its prestigious International Brand Personality Award. The award recognises the achievements of individuals who have leveraged their strengths to become highly successful and distinctive brands in their own right, and winners of the award have come from such diverse fields as sports, motivational speaking, politics, philosophy and popular music, to name a few.^[7]

The BrandLaureate BestBrands Awards (Public-listed companies)

The BrandLaureate BestBrands Awards was the first award to be presented by The BrandLaureate and awards outstanding achievements in branding amongst public listed companies in Malaysia. The award is given by category, meaning that winners earn the right to call themselves the best brand in their given field.^[8]

The BrandLaureate BestBrands Awards are held annually in the form of a major gala dinner attended by over 1000 guests. The awards commonly featured a special invited guest who is asked to present the awards, and past guests include the Sultan of Pahang, KDYMM Haji Ahmad Shah Al-Musta’in Billah Ibni Al-Marhum Sultan Abu Bakar Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mu’adzam Shah, the former Prime Minister of Malaysia, Tun Mahathir Mohamad and the Chief Minister of Sarawak, Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud.

The BrandLaureate SMEs BestBrands Awards

The BrandLaureate SMEs BestBrands Awards was started in 2007 in light of significant growth in the Malaysian SME scene around that time. Much like the corporate awards, the SME awards are given by product category, earning the brand the right to call themselves the best brand in their field.^[9]

Historically the best attended of all three BrandLaureate awards, the SME awards also honour the country’s best up-and-coming entrepreneurs through the Entrepreneur of the Year Award, which has in the past served as a barometer for influential innovators of the future.^[10]

The BrandLaureate ICON Awards

The BrandLaureate ICON Awards were introduced in 2011 and honours leading public personalities, celebrities, national servants and corporate leaders who, through their work, have gone beyond the norm to create brands that are highly recognisable and respected worldwide. Considered the de facto “national branding award” for Malaysia, many of the award’s recipients have played a large role in building the country’s reputation overseas.^[11]

The Trophy

The trophies used by The BrandLaureate are one of the brand’s most distinctive features. Built on a solid base, meant to symbolise the core importance of the brand to the organisation, the Brand Laureate trophy then rises to the sky, much like a powerful brand soars above the competition. To protect the credibility and integrity of the award, great care and expense is put into creating each trophy. The latest incarnation, which featured at the BrandLaureate BestBrands Awards 2013, showcased the statuette holding a Swarovski crystal to emphasise the theme of “Your Brand, A Timeless Classic!”. All BrandLaureate trophies are made with 24k gold plated with the exception of the SME Awards trophy, which is made from pure pewter.^[12]

Publications of The BrandLaureate

The BrandLaureate publishes a bi-monthly magazine, The BrandLaureate Business World Review, which features long-form articles on innovative brands and the latest branding and cultural trends in Malaysia and abroad.

The magazine distributes in all major Malaysian bookstores and newsstands and aims to be a chronicle of the rapid changes occurring in Malaysian business and branding, brought on by political change. The magazine was revamped at the beginning of 2013 to better suit this purpose and has since gained a reputation for hard-hitting interviews with Malaysian commentators such as Eddin Khoo, Hardesh Singh, Jemilah Mahmood and Joe Sidek. In addition to off-the-rack sales, each issue of the magazine is circulated to an exclusive group of 5,000 VIPs, including Malaysian cabinet ministers, foreign delegates and ambassadors and Managing Directors/CEOs of past winners of The Brand Laureate awards.

Other activities and involvement

As part of the Asia Pacific Brands Foundation, The BrandLaureate has a remit to help develop the branding scene in Malaysia and to encourage the adoption of better branding practices amongst Malaysian brands. The Brand Laureate does this through the various events it hosts every year including various networking sessions, branding seminars, branding product launches and its inaugural golf tournament, due to be held next in March 2014. With the launch of these new initiatives in addition to the three standard award evenings each year, The BrandLaureate hopes to further their awareness amongst SMEs and become a platform for the sharing of branding best practices between SMEs, MNCs and leading branding agencies.

References