Whistler Blackcomb to End Season with World Ski & Snowboard Festival

The END at the World Ski & Snowboard Festival (WSSF) in Whistler, BC is the ultimate ski season sendoff. Taking place in the Whistler Conference Centre on Saturday, April 18, The END is an electrifying late-night dance party featuring lightshows, sensory overloading sound and an incredible line up of DJs. This year, The END at WSSF will be headlined by AutoErotique, ETC!ETC! and Torro Torro.

AutoErotique

Originally hailing from Toronto, Canada, AutoErotique broke into the music scene in 2009 when they caught the attention of DJ/producer/label owner, Steve Aoki.

Lego Overtakes Ferrari as the World’s Most Powerful Brand

Every year, leading brand valuation and strategy consultancy Brand Finance puts thousands of the world’s top brands to the test. They are evaluated to determine which are the most powerful, and the most valuable.

‘Everything is Awesome’ for Lego

Lego is the World’s most powerful brand. It scores highly on a wide variety of measures on Brand Finance’s Brand Strength Index such as familiarity, loyalty, promotion, staff satisfaction and corporate reputation. Lego is a uniquely creative and immersive toy; children love the ability to construct their own worlds that it provides. In a tech-saturated world, parents approve of the back-to-basics creativity it encourages and have a lingering nostalgia for the brand long after their own childhoods. The Lego Movie perfectly captured this cross-generational appeal. It was a critical and commercial success, taking nearly US$500m since its release a year ago. It has helped propel Lego from a well-loved, strong brand to the World’s most powerful.

Ferrari Stalls

Lego has overtaken Ferrari, last year’s most powerful brand. Ferrari remains a very strong brand but its power is slowly diminishing. It has now gone several years without an F1 title and last season struggled even to mount a challenge. The sheen of glory from its 1990s golden era is beginning to wear thin. Meanwhile the departure of Luca di Montezemolo heralds a slight change in strategy at Ferrari’s road car division. Montezemolo kept a strict cap on production to maintain the exclusivity of the brand. Since his departure, Chairman Sergio Marchionne has suggested that this policy will be relaxed to boost revenues.

Many Ferrari owners and aspiring owners are extremely brand-conscious, making the loss of the ‘world’s most powerful brand’ accolade, which Ferrari has held for several years, a particularly heavy blow. Brand Finance CEO David Haigh comments, “Ferrari is still in a strong position and its brand value has actually increased 18% this year to $4.7 billion. The new strategy to capitalise on the brand will certainly drive short term value but over-exploitation risks lasting damage.”

The World’s Most Powerful Brands

Brand	Industry Group	Domicile	Brand Strength Index Score (/100)	Brand Rating 2015	Brand Value 2015 (USDm)
Lego	Toys	Denmark	93.4	AAA+	3,890
PWC	Pro. Services	US	91.8	AAA+	17,330
Red Bull	Beverages	Austria	91.1	AAA+	7,389
McKinsey	Pro. Services	US	90.1	AAA+	4,127
Unilever	Food	UK	90.1	AAA+	4,844
L'Oréal	Cosmetics	France	89.7	AAA+	12,480
Burberry	Apparel	UK	89.7	AAA+	4,612
Rolex	Apparel	Switzerland	89.7	AAA+	5,493
Ferrari	Automobiles	Italy	89.6	AAA+	4,747
Nike	Apparel	US	89.6	AAA+	24,118

Apple Sets Another Record

The power of a brand is just one component of Brand Finance’s analysis. The company combines the information on a brand’s strength with financial data, to calculate its commercial value. When brand values are calculated, Apple comes out on top. Though not quite on a par with Ferrari or Lego in terms of brand strength, Apple still has a very powerful brand. What sets it apart is ability to monetize that brand. Apple has a remarkable knack for using its brand to popularise and hence monetize existing technology, as it did so successfully first with the mp3 player, smart phone and later the tablet. Critics have been silenced by the success of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. Consumers have snapped latest models in their droves, helping Apple set records for quarterly profits ($18bn) and company value ($710bn).

David Haigh continues, “The Apple brand is worth US$128 billion. That value is huge not just in its own terms but also as a proportion of Apple’s record-breaking corporate valuation. It goes to show how valuable brands are as business assets and how important it is to manage them well.”

#FastestGrowingBrand

Twitter is the fastest growing brand; it has almost tripled its brand value in a year, increasing from $1.5 billion in early 2014 to $4.4 billion now. Fellow tech giants Baidu and Facebook have also grown strongly, by 161% and 146% respectively. The three appear to be more effectively managing the transition to mobile advertising than other tech players such as Google, boosting expectations of the financial potential of their brands.

Chipotle stands out among the many successes from the tech and telecoms sectors this year. Its brand value is up 124%. It is eating into McDonalds’ market share by positioning itself as a healthier, tastier and more ethical alternative. McDonalds’ iconic brand has lost $4bn in value this year.

Brand values for hundreds of the world’s top brands from all industries can be found on Brand Finance’s website. The full Global 500 table can be found here and infographics, further insight and analysis in the Brand Finance Global 500 report.

The World’s Most Valuable Brands

Brand	Industry Group	Domicile	Brand Value 2015 (USDm)	Brand Value Change (%)	Brand Value 2014 (USDm)	Brand Rating 2015	Brand Rating 2014
Apple	Tech	US	128,303	23%	104,680	AAA	AAA
Samsung	Conglomerate	South Korea	81,716	4%	78,752	AAA-	AAA
Google	Tech	US	76,683	12%	68,620	AAA	AAA+
Microsoft	Tech	US	67,060	7%	62,783	AAA	AAA
Verizon	Telecoms	US	59,843	12%	53,466	AAA-	AAA-
AT&T	Telecoms	US	58,820	30%	45,410	AA+	AA
Amazon.com	Tech	US	56,124	24%	45,147	AAA-	AAA-
General Electric	Tech	US	48,019	-9%	52,533	AA+	AA+
China Mobile	Telecoms	China	47,916	50%	31,845	AAA-	AA+
Walmart	Retail	US	46,737	4%	44,779	AA+	AA+

 Click here for the full table

The World’s Fastest Growing Brands

Brand	Industry Group	Domicile	Brand Value Change (%)	Brand Value 2015 (USDm)	Brand Value 2014 (USDm)	Brand Rating 2015	Brand Rating 2018
Twitter	Tech	US	185%	4,366	1,533	AAA-	AAA-
Baidu	Tech	China	161%	13,284	5,092	AA+	AA-
Facebook	Tech	US	146%	24,180	9,819	AAA-	AA+
Chipotle Mexican	Fast Food	US	124%	3,147	1,403	AA+	AA
Humana	Healthcare	US	99%	4,810	2,413	AA-	AA
priceline.com	Tech	US	97%	3,956	2,006	AA+	AA
Alibaba	Tech	China	90%	11,377	6,000	AA+	AA+
Lego	Toys	Denmark	69%	3,890	2,308	AAA+	AAA-
China Merchants Bank	Banks	China	65%	8,880	5,390	AAA-	AA
HCL	Tech	India	63%	3,148	1,925	AA	AA