What do Gmail, Skype, thefacebook and Superbrands have in common? That they are all internationally known, well-sounding brand names, is the obvious answer. What also links these brands is that they all started in 2004. It was the year Google launched Gmail, the first Skype call, the launch of thefacebook and the first time Hungary’s leading brands were assessed by the international Superbrands Programme. And it has been doing this work ever since, over the past two decades.
Every year, the Superbrands Program uses a complex selection system to evaluate thousands of brands and select the top performers to be awarded the Superbrands in the consumer category and the Business Superbrands in the business category. At its year-end gala evening, the Hungarian Superbrands glass awards are presented to these successful brands. 2024 saw the Superbrands gala, one of Hungary’s most important business awards events, again with more than 150 participants.
What is the secret to success?
this year’s gala event started with this question. And who knows the answer better than the invited winners of the Superbrands 2024 Gala themselves, the CEOs, marketing and commercial directors, country managers representing the superbrands. Guests were asked to choose the words and phrases they thought would best answer the question „What is the secret to success?” on a success measurement board. The answer that received the most votes, according to the Superbrands 2024 award winners, was creativity, followed by finding and overcoming new challenges, and then, with almost as many votes, the idea of creating value and doing for others.
„As the organiser of the Superbrands Hungary programme, our focus this year has been on professional success. Partly because I am personally very proud of Superbrands’ two-decade-long tradition in Hungary, and partly because this year we are publishing the success stories of the brands awarded in the programme in book form for the 20th time. This year’s Superbrands Big Book includes new storytellers, but also brand stories of outstanding professional successes that have been written for twenty years,” said Géza László, Director of the Superbrands Programme in Hungary.
The message of the Superbrands Awards
Just as no two success stories are the same, no two Superbrands 2024 awards are exactly the same. In 2024, the organisers asked glass artist Luca Kohut-Görömbei Kohut-Görömbei to create the unique glass awards. In the spirit of upcycling, the material for the awards was obtained by remelting wine bottles from restaurants, a process that was also illustrated in a short film with the artist. The pieces of glass, melted at 737°C and prepared one by one, evoke one of nature’s most interesting light phenomena, the aurora borealis, which is a unique symbol of the outstanding achievements of super brands.
The Superbrands Hungary team presented a unique Superbrands Award to the recently turned 70-year-old jazz musician and trombonist László Gőz, who, in addition to his musical career, is also the founding director of the Budapest Music Center, one of the most important institutions of Hungarian cultural life and the venue of the Superbrands Gala. Asked how challenging it is for a jazz musician to run a business that organises 300-400 concerts a year, runs a record label and employs around 60 people, László Gőz said that he thinks it is harder to be a musician. He was referring to the downsides of being a musician, the financial difficulties and the challenges of practising for 3-4 hours a day, which is a must from a professional point of view.
Creativity in all areas
The gala dinner was accompanied by a music history stand-up by Ádám Bősze, who told anecdotes about great musical successes and failures. The evening was rounded off with a special concert by the Moment’s Notice Quartet, whose music is a combination of improvisational jazz, classical, contemporary and electronic music. Members. György Kurtág, electronic sound artist and Miklós Lukács, cimbalom player. Szabolcs Keresztes joined as a fifth musician on this evening, responsible for the unique projection accompanying the concert: the sounds the musicians made generated images, which appeared as a visualisation short film on the screen above the musicians using a proprietary software. The visuals were based on abstract paintings by 20th century avant-garde artist and Constructivist painter László Moholy Nagy, constructed from geometric shapes.
About the Superbrands Hungary Programme
The international Superbrands Programme, which now operates in over 90 countries, was established in 1995 by the British Brand Council. The aim was twofold: to spotlight outstanding brands and to set an example for others to follow. Since its inception, the programme has become recognised around the world, with Superbrands now a special designation in nearly 90 countries.
In Hungary, the Superbrands award has represented the essence of all the positive factors associated with brands since 2004: it indicates their outstanding market recognition, popularity and financial stability. Five years after its launch, the Hungarian Superbrands Programme has extended the qualification to business brands with the introduction of the Business Superbrands Award, which recognises the most successful brands in the business-to-business (B2B) sector.
Superbrands is a widely recognised brand of high quality, and the international programme recognises consumer and business brands. Each year, the award is decided by a 40-member independent panel of marketing and management experts following a multi-stage pre-selection process.
Photos by Barnabás Horváth