Tanduay Rum bags “Brand of the Year” in World Branding Awards

The prestigious World Branding Awards, the ultimate global brand-recognition accolade, has recently named Tanduay Rum the “Brand of the Year” in a glittering ceremony held at the State Apartments of Kensington Palace.

“We are elated with the recognition given once again to Tanduay. For the past years, we have continued to come up with new product innovations and create memorable experiences for our consumers that further strengthened our brand equity,” said Paul Lim, chief marketing officer, Tanduay Distillers, Inc.

Winners are uniquely judged through three streams: brand valuation, consumer market research, and public online voting. Over 230,000 consumers from around the world participated in the voting process. Seventy percent of the scoring process comes from consumer votes. Only one winner was chosen in each category per country.

“In June, we were recognized by an international award for being the world’s top-selling rum. Now, a world recognition of the brand affirms even more that we continue to provide our consumers with a great product experience,” Lim added.

It was also this year that Drinks International magazine published a ranking of the sales of global rum brands. According to the document, based on 2017 sales figures, Tanduay has overtaken Bacardi as the world's best-selling rum citing that the company sold 19.5 million 9L cases (vs. Bacardi's 16.8 million) and showed 17% growth YOY.

The brand awards, on the other hand, brings Tanduay among the greatest and most recognizable brands in the world such as BMW, Cartier, Club Med, JinkoSolar, Johnnie Walker, Lego, L'Oréal, Louis Vuitton, Nescafé, Rolex, Samsung, Schwarzkopf, and Yakult.

Regional winners were Ajinomoto, Uniqlo (Japan); Giordano, Optical 88, Sasa, Shangri–La (Hong Kong); Indomie (Indonesia); LuLu; RAK Ceramics (United Arab Emirates); MTN (South Africa); and Zara (Spain).

National tier winners read like a who’s who of branding, with many known globally, and are all iconic brands in their respective countries.

“The awards celebrate the achievements of some of the greatest brands around the globe. With an average of just six winners per country, it is truly a great achievement to be a winner of these awards,” said Richard Rowles, Chairman of the World Branding Forum.

This year, the awards were split into two award ceremonies, with brands from the Americas and the Caribbean awarded in a separate New York event earlier in July. “More than 4,500 brands from 57 countries were nominated this year, with 351 brands from 49 countries declared as winners – 81 brands from 16 countries were awarded in New York; and 270 winners from 33 countries awarded in London. Not every country was awarded, as a few did not receive enough votes to qualify,” said Peter Pek, Chief Executive of the Forum.

Now in its fifth year, the awards is organised by the World Branding Forum, a global non-profit organisation dedicated to advancing branding standards. It organises and sponsors a range of educational programmes. The Forum also publishes branding news on its website that reaches a global audience of over 23.69 million.