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Summary
On July 9th, 2025, expert researchers from seven organizations delivered a set of presentations and participated in a panel discussion on maintaining brand strength in the long term at an event curated by the Cognition Council’s Long Term Effectiveness Working Group. The Working Group shared insights from VML’s Brand Asset Valuator (BAV) data on the trajectory of the top brands in brand strength in 2003, as well as a custom study conducted by Tracksuit on eight food brands in that top tier. These presentations were followed by case studies of three brands that “defied gravity” – brands that were in the top decile in 2003 that maintained or improved their ranking by 2023. The analysis focused on what happened to top brands over the course of two decades and how brands remain strong despite counterforces such as technological disruption and cultural shifts.
