New York, NY. 16 April 2008. Global market research and consultancy Millward Brown announces that Brand Value Advisors (BVA) has joined up with Millward Brown Optimor, its strategic consulting unit dedicated to maximizing the financial returns from brand and marketing investment.

BVA is a leading advisory group to Private Equity and Venture Capital firms that invest in brands. BVA provides expertise in brand and category due diligence, brand valuation, and brand strategy for investor groups and their portfolio companies. BVA was founded by Mike Kelly in 2007, and has been engaged in transactions across a variety of industries and investor groups.

Prior to BVA, Mike Kelly was a Senior Partner and Operating Board Member of Ogilvy, New York. He managed a wide range of top brands, including American Express, AT&T Wireless, Delta Air Lines, Goldman Sachs, Ben & Jerry’s, IBM, Microsoft, Motorola, and the NFL.

Commenting on Millward Brown Optimor’s collaboration with BVA, Joanna Seddon, CEO of Millward Brown Optimor, said: “Private Equity and Venture Capital firms that take a strategic approach to brand management get higher returns from their portfolios.” She added: “We are delighted to work with Mike and his team to help his and our clients build and manage strong brands that can command high offering prices and protect investors from risk.”

Mike Kelly said: "Our clients need timely and actionable assessments of the opportunities and risks associated with investing in brands. Millward Brown Optimor is the ideal partner to expand the scope and depth of this service." He added: "We can't wait to get going."

David Jacquin, Founder and Managing Partner, North Point Advisors said: "As a BVA client, we are thrilled that BVA is partnering with Millward Brown Optimor. This combination will bring greater heft and resource to this critical offering."

LONDON, UK, 23rd April 2007 — The second annual BRANDZ™ Top 100 Most Powerful Brands ranking published in cooperation with the Financial Times was announced today by leading global market research and consulting firm Millward Brown. Google has risen to the top of this year's ranking, taking the number one spot with a brand value of $66,434 million. This was followed by General Electric ($61,880 million), Microsoft ($54,951 million) and Coca-Cola ($44,134 million).

Produced by Millward Brown Optimor, the firm's finance and ROI arm, the ranking identifies the most powerful brands in the world as measured by their dollar value. A full report will be published today, exclusively in the Financial Times.

The aggregate value of all brands in the BRANDZ™ Top 100 increased by 10.6% in one year, from $1.44 trillion in 2006 to $1.6 trillion in 2007.

"Success stories from this year's BRANDZ™ Top 100 demonstrate that winning brands leverage major market trends effectively to create business value," said Joanna Seddon, global CEO Millward Brown Optimor. "Strong brands are capable of extending into areas of opportunity to access new revenue streams and to help businesses respond to market changes."

The most notable trends emerging from this year's BRANDZ™ Top 100 include:

1. The rise of the East – Today, consumers in emerging markets – especially the ones known as the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China) have more disposable income than ever before. In order to succeed in the BRICS, Western brands must offer products or services that are relevant to the local consumers. Fast food brands such as KFC ($4,485m) and McDonald’s ($33,138 million) appeal to BRIC consumers looking for a Western dining experience. Apparel brands including Nike ($10,290 million), Levi’s ($1,041 million) and Zara ($6,469 million) fill the gap between local brands and imported luxury brands by providing “affordable fashion” to young consumers. Luxury brands such as Louis Vuitton ($22,686 million), Rolex ($5,387 million) are also seeing significant growth in these markets as wealthy consumers look for brands that represent their status.
2. Converging technologies – Convergence is the hot topic in technology: The ability to mix and match different services (voice, data, GPS, music, internet, email etc) and deliver them over different devices has the potential to improve the lives of consumers. In the face of increasing complexity, branding has been leveraged to simplify and contrast different offerings: from Apple's ($24,728 million) basics-but-smarter iPhone to Sony Ericsson's Walkman-branded music phones to Nokia's ($31,670 million) all-in-one mobile computers, manufacturers are crafting coherent offerings that are aligned with their brand identity. Like Apple and Nokia, strong brands are able to stretch so parent companies can increase revenue streams by investing in high growth ventures.
3. Delivering on Corporate Social Responsibility – Delivering on the promise of corporate social responsibility helped boost the value of major brands including BP ($5,931 million), Shell ($ 4,679 million) and Toyota ($ 33,427 million). BP was the first major oil company to address climate change with its 'beyond petroleum' brand positioning. BP executed on that brand positioning to become one of the top three global suppliers of solar energy. Shell followed suit. Toyota's success in marketing its hybrid model Prius contributed to its positive brand image and its continued leadership in the automotive sector.
4. Fast food brands react to health conscious consumers – Rising concerns about healthy eating disrupted the fast food industry that had enjoyed continuous growth since the 1980s. Most fast food chains, including McDonald's ($33,138 million), repositioned themselves with the introduction of healthier food alternatives. Burger King ($1,401million) took the opposite stance through marketing campaigns that called attention to the chain's original offering: the high-calorie and masculine hamburger. The 63% increase in Burger King's brand value proves that strong brands succeed whether they follow or defy market trends.

Simon Targett, who edited the Financial Times Global Brands Supplement said: “A lot can change in world business over 12 months, and this year’s brand rankings are testimony to that with Google taking pole position as the world’s most powerful brand.”

Commenting on this year's BRANDZ™ Top 100 ranking, Eileen Campbell, global CEO of Millward Brown said: “"It is a huge achievement to become one of the world's most powerful brands and Millward Brown congratulates all of the companies featured in this year's BRANDZ™ Top 100. These top performers demonstrate the real financial value that successful business and brand management can deliver. There are tons of actionable insights that can be derived from these rankings. They prove that a blend of good business leadership, responsible financial management and powerful marketing are an unbeatable combination that can be leveraged to create and grow corporate wealth."

The BRANDZ™ Top 100 is the only brand ranking to combine financials with solid measures of consumer sentiment derived from WPP's BRANDZ™ database, the world's largest repository of brand equity data. The BRANDZ™ study has interviewed more than one million consumers globally and covers 39,000 brands worldwide. The BRANDZ™ Top 100 is the first study to cover both business and consumer brands and to include predictive metrics of future brand performance. Market performance metrics and financial data were obtained from Datamonitor and Bloomberg respectively.

The complete BRANDZ™ Top 100 report with category and regional breakdowns as well as additional analysis is available online at www.millwardbrown.com/mboptimor, www.brandz.com and at www.ft.com

View the full press release in PDF or Word format.

New York, 26 September 2006. Dr. Will Gordon was appointed Senior Vice President and Chief Research Officer of Millward Brown Optimor, leading market research firm Millward Brown's global unit that provides strategic recommendations with demonstrated financial impact to major clients.

In this role, he will be responsible for providing design and analysis guidance to the research component of Millward Brown Optimor's brand and marketing strategy work. He will also develop new research offers and analytic tools in collaboration with Millward Brown's R&D department and Marketing Sciences' team. He will work as an integral part of Millward Brown Optimor's global team, based from New York and. reporting directly to Joanna Seddon, Executive Vice President, who leads Millward Brown Optimor.

Commenting on his appointment, Seddon said: "Will's background in market research, brand strategy and management consulting further strengthens Millward Brown Optimor's expertise in addressing issues of integrated analytics and accountability." Seddon added: "He will play a crucial role in developing recommendations that will help clients harness the power of customer insight through the application of advanced primary research tools and analytics. We are delighted to welcome him to the Millward Brown Optimor team."

Gordon joins Millward Brown Optimor from Prophet Brand Strategy where he was Associate Partner leading the Customer Research and Analytics practice. In this role, he designed approaches to brand strategy problems and created new analytic tools to support brand strategy creation and refinement. Prior to that, he held senior positions at Mercer Management Consulting, Accenture and Adventis. Over his 23-year career, he has advised leading companies including Vodafone, ING, Charles Schwab, Qwest, eBay, Sprint, Lucent, IBM, SBC, Verizon and Mazda Motor of America. He has served clients throughout North America, Europe, India, Australia and Japan.

Dr. Gordon added: “I am delighted to join the world-class team at Millward Brown Optimor at this critical juncture in the group’s development. I am also pleased to be rejoining several former colleagues from Prophet and Mercer with whom I worked closely. Millward Brown Optimor’s potent blend of brand and marketing strategy, finance and primary research will mean maximum value for clients striving for growth in a dynamic and turbulent marketplace.”

A frequent speaker and commentator on issues related to market research and brand strategy, Dr. Gordon holds a Ph.D. in Higher Education from the University of Denver, a M.Ed. in Education from Colorado State University and a B.A. in Economics from the University of Vermont.

Millward Brown Optimor is a unit of leading market research firm Millward Brown that provides strategic recommendations with demonstrated financial impact to leading clients worldwide. Millward Brown Optimor complements Millward Brown's research and brand measurement capabilities by providing strategic recommendations with demonstrated financial impact to leading clients. The offer includes brand and marketing consulting, portfolio strategy, brand valuation and analytics, marketing investment planning and ROI measurement.

London, 4 May 2006. Christian Dorffer has been appointed Senior Vice President of Millward Brown Optimor, leading market research firm Millward Brown's global unit that provides strategic recommendations with demonstrated financial impact to our major clients.

In this role, Christian will be dedicated to building Millward Brown Optimor's practice in the UK and Europe. He takes over from Marco Forato who will move into a global role as Senior Vice President of Global Clients and Finance/Operations. Christian will be based in London and report directly to Joanna Seddon, Executive Vice President, who heads up Millward Brown Optimor from New York.

Commenting on Christian's appointment, Seddon said: “I believe that the addition of Christian greatly strengthens our management team. Christian will be dedicated to building our business in Europe, where he has a track record of success in brand and business consulting. His background in brand consulting, strategy consulting and finance makes him ideally suited to help our European clients maximize financial returns on brand and marketing investments. We are delighted to welcome him to Millward Brown Optimor."

Christian joins Millward Brown Optimor from Prophet Brand Strategy where he was Senior Manager in the UK. Prior to that he worked with Corporate Value Associates, a shareholder value based strategy consulting firm, and before that with PricewaterhouseCoopers. He brings extensive experience in brand portfolio strategy, brand positioning, channel optimization, new offer design, value proposition development, and customer segmentation, as well as expertise in brand valuation and marketing effectiveness. Christian has advised global companies across a wide variety of industries in Europe, North America, Latin America, India and Africa.

"I feel honored to join the Millward Brown Optimor team at this exciting stage. I believe Millward Brown Optimor is occupying a highly relevant and unique position in the market as a brand strategy unit that can bring demonstrated financial benefits to leading clients worldwide. Having world class business and brand consultants, research & analytics and econometricians under the same roof offers large enterprises a level of creative business acumen combined with hard core stats and economics never seen before. I have been aware of the great work done by my colleagues in the past and I am very excited to join the team and challenge conventional brand thinking in Europe.”

Christian is a frequent speaker and commentator on issues related to business, brand and marketing strategy at executive events and is often quoted in the business press. He is also an active member in several Corporate Steering Committees around the world. Christian holds a MSc. in Economics and Business from Copenhagen Business School and has been a visiting scholar at Harvard University.

Millward Brown Optimor is leading market research firm Millward Brown's global unit that provides strategic recommendations with demonstrated financial impact to our leading clients. It complements Millward Brown's research and brand measurement capabilities by providing strategic recommendations with demonstrated financial impact to leading clients. The offer includes brand and marketing consulting, portfolio strategy, brand valuation and analytics, marketing investment planning and ROI measurement.

Singapore, 21 November 2005. Leading global market research agency Millward Brown has launched its global brand consulting practice in Asia Pacific. The practice, Millward Brown Optimor, specializes in helping clients maximize the financial returns on brand and marketing investments.

Yixin Zhang has been appointed to the position of Director of Millward Brown Optimor to lead the initiative in Asia Pacific. Yixin will be based in Beijing and will report directly to Executive Vice President, Joanna Seddon, who heads up Millward Brown Optimor from New York.

Commenting on the development, Seddon said: “We are pleased to extend Millward Brown Optimor's offer to Asia Pacific where clients will benefit from Yixin's business and brand consulting expertise. Yixin's extensive knowledge of Chinese and Western markets put her in the perfect position to drive this business unit forward.”

“Although brand strategy and marketing ROI are new concepts in Asia Pacific, top managers in the region are keen to adopt innovative ideas and methodologies," said Yixin. "I am excited by the opportunity to help Asia Pacific's leading companies leapfrog development stages in marketing and brand management. I look forward to working with the Millward Brown team in helping clients transition successfully from national and regional brands into global brands."

Yixin brings with her ten years of commercial and consulting experience in China and the United States. Prior to joining Millward Brown Optimor, Yixin was a Senior Consultant at a marketing consulting agency in China, where she provided brand assessment and brand strategy solutions for clients in the technology, telecommunication and financial services industries. Earlier in her career, Yixin held consulting and project management positions at Chevron Energy Solutions, PA Consulting Group and Arthur D. Little where she advised clients in various industries including energy, aviation and utilities.

In her role as Director, Yixin will help Millward Brown Optimor's clients in Asia Pacific maximize their returns on brand and marketing investments and take full advantage of their brand's potential for value creation. Yixin will draw on her consulting background and experience to offer actionable recommendations on brand and marketing strategy, brand valuation, brand portfolio management, brand architecture, brand positioning and ROI measurement.

Yixin holds an M.B.A. from the Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina and a Bachelor of Economics from the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing.

Millward Brown Optimor complements Millward Brown's measurement capabilities by providing high-level portfolio strategy, brand valuation and analytics, marketing investment planning and ROI measurement.