Millward Brown’s BrandZ Top 100 Released

This week, Millward Brown released the 2009 BrandZ Top 100, the world’s largest brand equity study. “Millward Brown Optimor created the BrandZ Top 100, a ranking that identifies the world’s most valuable brands measured by their dollar value.”

The value of the top 100 brands has seen a marginal increase of 1.7 percent. Given the economic climate, this is a big deal! BrandZ reports that “when every key financial indicator plummeted, the value of the top 100 brands increased by 2 percent to $2 trillion.” In the BrandZ press release, Joanna Seddon, CEO of Millward Brown Optimor said that, “In the current environment, where the value of many businesses has fallen, brand has become even more important because it can help to sustain companies in tough times. Those who continue to invest in their brand will be better positioned for business growth as the economic situation starts to improve than those who have cut spend.”

In the list, 85 brands remain from 2008. The top of the 15 brands entering the ranking are Pampers, Nintendo and VISA, all entering quite high on the list. The 15 that dropped off the list were from categories particularly hard-hit by the economic situation: cars, financial institutions, and insurance.

Check out who made the cut:

See anything surprising? Can you guess the 15 brands that dropped from the list?

Of the list, some are just hanging around, riding out previous momentum, while others are pushing forward, hitting the top 10 list of highest brand momentum and the top 20 risers list.