Wunderman Thompson charts world’s most “inspiring” brands – Google is top

Wunderman Thompson has been measuring what it describes as “the world’s most inspiring brands” for three years now and this year’s list is topped (again) by tech giants Google (below), Apple, Samsung and Amazon – who happen to be four of the world’s biggest companies. Colgate comes fifth.

Newbies include Tesla, Uber, Netflix, Disney+ and (surprise, surprise) TikTok.

Inspire Score is Wunderman Thompson’s proprietary tool which purports to measure a brand’s inspiration status by uncovering the brand attributes that fuel business growth through their ability to inspire people. The study proves, says Wunderman Thompson, that inspiring brands are able to grow their market share more quickly and charge a higher premium for their products and services than competitors.

WT global CEO Mel Edwards says: “As the world’s foremost researcher on inspiration, we have again proven that there is a strong correlation between inspiration and brand growth. The Inspire Score demonstrates how inspiring brands can drive growth in market share and command a price premium, which is increasingly important in the face of these changing economic conditions.

“The brands at the top of our list have shifted with the zeitgeist and placed themselves at the centre of people’s lives, perfectly positioning themselves to take advantage of inspiration as a powerful lever for growth.”

As with all these brand measures the results seem to echo more mundane reality, namely how big the companies are and how well people know them. We all know Google although we may not approve of some of its sneaky machinations. But does that make it “inspiring?” It’s ultimately a chicken and egg argument: did the big famous company come first or the brand?

The full table is here.