Vodafone is the most valuable global telecoms brand and the 5th most valuable brand in the world according to the 2011 BrandFinance® Global 500 - the world’s most comprehensive brand value league table that ranks the most valuable brands across all major markets. Originally conceived as the world’s first global mobile brand, Vodafone has managed to increase its brand value by nearly 6% from 2010.

Vodafone’s investments in Africa and Australia have continued to boost its global brand presence. Despite being the world’s most valuable mobile telecoms brand, there is still further potential upside, principally across its partner market network - now present in over 40 markets including Malta – which could return more value from the brand to both Vodafone and its partners.

Balesh Sharma, CEO at Vodafone Malta commented that the Vodafone brand continues to grow from strength to strength reflecting the global company’s ability to strategically assess markets, lifestyles and consumption trends and to increase the company’s relevance while delivering the most advanced technology to its customer base all over the world including voice, data and internet solutions on mobile phones. “As Vodafone garners success across its global network, Vodafone Malta leverages the paybacks of being part of this, to the benefit of its customers in Malta.”

David Haigh, CEO of Brand Finance, said “From a global perspective, five of the top ten largest growers are technology-related companies, reinforcing the importance of embracing technological innovation to give a seamless, value-enhancing brand experience. We have found that, across many leading companies, senior management are increasingly using brand valuation dashboards to monitor the health of their brands throughout the year in order to make better informed strategic marketing decisions. This trend is likely to continue as the sheer size of these brand values becomes impossible to ignore.’’

Brand Finance first issued its global report into the relative equity of the 250 top global brands in 2007.  In 2008, the study was extended to analyse the top 500 brands worldwide.  The Global 500 report is published annually and incorporates data from all listed companies globally. Each brand is accorded a brand rating: a benchmarking study of the strength, risk and future potential of a brand relative to its competitor set as well as a brand value: a summary measure of the financial strength of the brand.

Brand Finance is an independent global business focused on advising strongly branded organisations on how to maximise value through effective management of their brands and intangible assets. Since it was founded in 1996, Brand Finance has performed thousands of branded business, brand and intangible asset valuations worth trillions of dollars.