Millward Brown

Gordon Brown and Maurice Millward founded Millward Brown in 1973 in Britain, having both worked as researchers at General Foods. The business was set up above a row of estate agents in Royal Leamington Spa, a town in the Midlands (England). The aim of the business was to provide clients with information that allowed them to make correct marketing and management decisions.[5]

From 1980, Millward Brown rolled out continuous tracking studies in many countries but managed them from the UK. Until 1986 Millward Brown only had offices in the UK until it acquired U.S. research agency, Ad Factors. Bob Meyers, executive vice president of Ad Factors became CEO of the new company renamed Ad Factors/Millward Brown.[6]

Millward Brown became a global company in 1987 with moves into Europe led by Tony Copeland. In 1990, Millward Brown was bought by global communications services company WPP plc,[7] headed up by CEO Martin Sorrell. Maurice Millward retired in 1992 and Gordon Brown retired in 1994.

Millward Brown has acquired many companies namely - Analytics Quotient of India in 2016,[8][9] EffectiveBrands Holding B.V. of Netherlands in 2014,[10] InsightExpress Inc. of US in 2014,[11][12] BrandAnalytics Consultoria Ltda of Brazil in 2013,[13] and IntelliQuest Information Group Inc of USA in 1999.[14][15]

In 2013 Yahoo! Asia Pacific and Millward Brown partnered to evaluate the brand impact of digital advertising.

In 2015 Millward Brown partnered with Snapchat to provide the first analysis of advertising effectiveness on the Snapchat platform.

In 1976, Maurice Millward and Gordon Brown set up their first continuous tracking study, now named Dynamic Tracking, for Cadbury Schweppes with the objective to explore the issue of ad wear-out over time.[16] Dynamic Tracking provides a complete 360° view of brand health and a continuous flow of knowledge about what is working for a brand and what could be working better. The approach now used for continuous tracking is almost universally based on that introduced by Millward Brown.[17]

In 1985, Gordon Brown published "Tracking Studies and sales effect. A UK Perspective." [18] In 1986, Gordon Brown introduced the Awareness Index in his paper, "Modelling Advertising Awareness."[19] The Awareness Index (AI)[20] is now a widely used metric for aiding the assessment of advertising.[21] In 1987, Gordon published another paper "The Link Between Sales Effects and advertising content."[22] Another paper followed in 1991, "How Advertising Affects the Sales of Packaged Goods Brands," known internally as "The Black Book."[23]

Gordon Brown and Nigel Hollis developed the Link pre-test in 1988. Link uses a comprehensive set of evaluative and diagnostic questions to predict the impact of an ad, in terms of both the attention it will generate and the sales that will result. It identifies areas that could be further developed or fine-tuned. With over 70,000 ads tested, the Millward Brown Link database provides a wealth of data for category and country comparisons. In 2008, Millward Brown conducted its 50,000th Link ad pre-test.[24]

Link360 launched in 2007 which enabled multimedia campaigns to be pre-tested.[25] Millward Brown launched online ad assessment facility, Digital Link, in 2006.[26] In 2015, Millward Brown launched LinkNow for TV, a digital copy-testing solution for television advertising that gives results in less than six hours, available through ZappiStore.[27] This was followed by LinkNow for Digital, a copy-testing solution for digital advertising that delivered results in a similar time frame.[28]

Millward Brown launched Brand Dynamics in 1996. Brand Dynamics is used to look at a brand’s health. Millward Brown created the brand dynamics pyramid[29] as an instrument to illustrate the factors underpinning customer loyalty to a brand.[30]

Millward Brown launched the Neuroscience Practice in 2010 to apply some insights from neuroscience to advertising research.[31] Headed up by Graham Page,[32] the team has four regional leads in AMAP, LatAm, Europe and North America.[33]

Brand Dynamics was launched in 1996, in 2011 Millward Brown set out to improve measurement of brand equity. By 2013 MB launched the Meaningfully Different Framework (MDF).

BrandZ is the world’s largest brand equity platform. The BrandZ series of Brand Valuation rankings combine validated financials with nearly 4 million consumer interviews to determine the value that the brand contributes to the overall business – BrandZ is the only brand valuation to take into account consumer perceptions of brands. Now in its 14th year, BrandZ and has researched over 166,000 brands in over 50 markets, providing brands with a detailed picture of the competitor landscape and how their brand is perceived around the world.

Australia Top 40 2018 – launched 27 June 2018 – Commonwealth Bank of Australia no. 1 brand with a brand value of $16,412 million

China Top 100 2019 – launched 6 May 2019 – Alibaba no.1 brand with a brand value of $141.0 billion

Chinese Global Brand Builders Top 50 2019 – launched 29 March 2019 – Huawei no. 1 brand

France Top 50 2019 – launched 13 December 2018 – Louis Vuitton no. 1 brand with a brand value of $35,505 million

Germany Top 50 2019 – launched 31 January 2019 – SAP no. 1 brand with brand value of $50,937 million

Global Top 100 2018 – launched 29 May 2018 - Google no. 1 brand with brand value of $302,063 million

India Top 2018 – launched 6 September 2018– HDFC Bank no. 1 brand with brand value of $21.7 billion

Indonesia Top 50 2018 – launched 24 October 2018 – BCA Bank no. 1 brand with brand value of $12,674 million

Italy Top 30 2018 – launched 19 March 2019 – Gucci no. 1 brand with brand value of $24,414 million

Latin America Top 50 2018 – launched 27 April – Corona no. 1 brand with brand value of $8,292 million

The Netherlands Top 30 2019 – launched 6 December 2018 – Shell no. 1 brand with brand value of $20,656 million

Saudi Arabia Top 20 2017 – STC no.1 brand with brand value of $6,589 million

South Africa Top 30 2018 – launched 31 October 2018 – Standard Bank no. 1 brand value of $4,788 million

Spain Top 30 2019 – launched 26 March 2019 – Zara no. 1 brand value of $24,801 million

UK Top 75 2018 – launched 20 September 2018 – Vodafone no. 1 brand value of $28,860 million

US Top 100 2018 –launched 14 November 2018 – Google no. 1 brand value of $286,258 million

Retail Top 75 2019 – launched 14 May 2019 – Amazon no. 1 brand value of $165,256 million

In February 2011, Millward Brown launched the findings of its Value-D study, which looked at brand value and desire.[34]

In 2010, Firefly Millward Brown announced the findings of its Language of Love in Social Media study,[35] which recommends successful strategies within the social media space.

In 2011, Millward Brown launched the Value of a Fan[36] study in collaboration with the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA). The study was conducted with WFA members and looked at what contributes to a successful brand fan page.