Public Eye impresses in Africa Best Brands Awards
‘MAKERESEMESE LETUKA
MASERU – Public Eye newspaper is the second most admired media brand in Lesotho, according to rankings in the inaugural Africa’s Best Brands 2021 Awards – in the national edition of the Top 100 Most Admired Brands in Africa hosted virtually this week by Brand Africa and Lesotho’s Tangerine Co. Tangerine Co. Africa with Brand Africa presented Africa’s Top 100 Brands, with Lesotho making its first appearance this year, on May 25.
Topping the list of the most admired brands in the media sector is Moafrika FM, while Afrika Media Holdings’ Lesotho Times came on No 3; followed by People’s Choice FM, Lesotho Television, Molisa-ea-Molemo Radio Station, Mamello Radio Station, Mafeteng Community Station and government-owned Radio Lesotho and the Ultimate FM in that order.
Thebe Ikalafeng, founder and chairman Brand Africa, said at the event that given its impact on lives and livelihoods, this year’s Brand Africa survey explored brands which were perceived to have been helpful during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“South Africa’s Vodacom, Zimbabwe’s Econet, and Lesotho’s Alliance Insurance, South Africa’s Shoprite and Lesotho’s MGC are the Top 5 brands perceived to have been helpful in Lesotho during the pandemic,” said.
Despite an increase in sample size and countries, the Top 10 Most Admired Brands in Africa show little change from previous years. MTN, consistently the only African brand among the Top 10 brands overall, dropped to number 11 for the first time in a decade. American sports and fitness giant, Nike, has retained the top spot for the fourth year in a row.
MTN and Dangote retain their status as the most admired African brands recalled spontaneously and when prompted, respectively. Nigeria’s GT Bank retains its position as the most admired financial services brand in Africa.
Top 100 brands in Africa continue to be dominated by European brands which have held their share at 41 percent (-1), North America (+1), Asia (-), and Africa retaining its 13 percent share of the most admired brands in the world.
Similarly, the leading African countries that dominate the rankings largely retained their positions with Nigeria (-1) and South Africa (-) with five brands each, Ethiopia (+1) and Kenya (-) accounting for the13 brands among the Top 100 most admired brands in Africa. On behalf of the panelists the head of marketing at Nedbank, ‘Mamoabi Phori, said local brands need to get visible and to collaborate and produce quality brands, if they adopt foreign brands they must localize them fully.
The 2021 survey was conducted between March and April 2021 and yielded over 80 000 brand mentions and over 3 500 unique brands. Brand Africa is an intergenerational movement to inspire a great Africa through promoting a positive image of Africa, celebrating its diversity and driving its competitiveness. It is a brand-led movement which recognizes that in the 21st century, brands are an asset and a vector of image, reputation and competitiveness of nations. Brand Africa seeks to inspire a brand-led African renaissance.
Recognizing the power of brands as a vector of the image, reputation and competitiveness of nations and inspired by the African Union Agenda 2063 towards an integrated, peaceful and prosperous Africa, it’s a renowned African branding authority and founder of the foremost Africa-focused branding advisory firm Brand Leadership Group – which established Brand Africa in 2009 as a non-profit civil society vehicle to mobilize Africans and the diaspora to proactively drive a brand-led African agenda.
Brand Africa was launched in 2010 with a Brand Africa FORUM, an intergenerational gathering of global and African decision makers, thought-leaders, influencers and youth. The agenda of the first Brand Africa FORUM was to assess and leverage the impact of and leverage the equity of the first World Cup in Africa for the African brand.
Tangerine Lesotho is a subsidiary of Citrus Investment Holdings (Pty) Ltd, which provides creative communications concepts that break through the muddle of ideas and information to provide refreshing, innovative, effective and efficient business solutions. Tangerine is one of the founding companies of The Entrepreneurs Network (TEN), a platform of programmes and initiatives aimed at growing an entrepreneurial ecosystem.