A total of 118 brands from 30 countries were recently honoured at the prestigious World Branding Awards at of Kensington Palace in London, UK.

National tier winners from the United Arab Emirates included Adnoc and Dubai Duty Free, while RAK Ceramics clinched a Regional Award.

National tier winners from Kuwait included KEMS for Broadband/ISP, Gulf Insurance Group for Insurance and The Avenues for the Shopping Centre category.

Global winners include Apple, Cartier, Coca-Cola, Facebook, Google, Guinness, HSBC, IKEA, Johnnie Walker, Kleenex, Lego, Louis Vuitton, McDonald's, Mercedes Benz, Nescafé, Nike, Rolex, Shell, Starbucks and VISA.

The Awards is organised by the World Branding Forum (WBF), a global non-profit organisation dedicated to advancing branding standards for the good of the branding community as well as consumers. It organises and sponsors a range of educational programmes, as has joint collaborations with leading universities and museums.

“The Awards is a celebration of the achievements of some of the greatest brands around the world. To win, a brand needs to have built a good reputation and trust with consumers, as 70 per cent of the scoring process comes from consumers voting for their favourite brands,” said Richard Rowles, chairman of the World Branding Forum.

Each brand was named “Brand of the Year” in their respective categories. RAK Ceramics was awarded a regional award for being one of the largest brands in its category in the Middle East.

“Over 2,600 brands from 35 countries were nominated for the 2015-2016 Awards in multiple categories, and more than 65,000 consumers from around the world participated during the voting period. With such tough competition, each winner has clearly demonstrated the power of their brand among consumers,” said Peter Pek, chief executive of the World Branding Forum.

Uniquely, winners are judged through three streams: brand valuation, consumer market research, and public online voting.  – TradeArabia News Service