UN Global Innovation Index includes brand value for the first time

For the first time in its 13-year history, the 2020 iteration of the United Nation’s Global Innovation Index, which provides detailed metrics about the innovation performance of 131 countries all over the world, includes brand value as a core indicator.

The study uses findings for the ISO-certified database of the world’s top 5,000 brands compiled by independent brand valuation consultancy Brand Finance. The 80 indicators of the GII, a leading reference for measuring an economy’s innovation performance, include explore a vision of political environment, knowledge and technology, infrastructure, business sophistication and, as of now, brand value as well.

The values of all top brands found in Brand Finance’s study have been used to create a novel GII indicator in 2020, in which the value of all top brands of each economy are summed and scaled by gross domestic product. The new brand metric emphasises the importance of brands for value creation and their role as intangible assets to innovation in an economy.

“A nation’s brands are crucial drivers of both economic growth and economic development. Taking China as an example, we are witnessing the nation make significant strides in the development of home-grown brands, including TikTok and Huawei, and without a doubt the number of leading brands is going to continue to grow,” says CEO of Brand Finance David Haigh.

Hong Kong SAR has emerged as the leading global economy in the new brand value metric, with the highest global brand value scaled by GDP.