The European Brand Institute and UNIDO jointly held the 16th BRAND GLOBAL SUMMIT under the motto "BRANDS FOR SUSTAINABILITY" from September 30th to October 1st, 2020. Leading decision-makers from business, science, international organizations, politics and diplomacy from all over the globe participated in the BRAND GLOBAL SUMMIT at the Vienna International Centre. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic this year’s Summit was an online event.

Before the opening of the BRAND GLOBAL SUMMIT on October 1st, Gerhard Hrebicek and LI Yong, Director General of UNIDO formally exchanged the Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation, which was signed on March 16th, thereby establishing a framework for further expanding the existing partnership in the framework of 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Following the press conference, the Brand Global Summit was officially initiated. International journalist Sarah Kelly moderated the event and led online participants through the panels.

In the course of the opening dialogue, which focused on the value of brands as intangible assets and their impact on both individual firms and entire industries, Bernardo Calzadilla-Sarmiento, Managing Director of the Directorate of Digitalization, Technology and Agri-Business at UNIDO highlighted how sustainable brands perform better and contribute to growth and SDGs: “Branding does not only have an impact at the level of individual firms but also for entire industries, countries and regions, supporting intellectual value addition, enhancing productivity and international competitiveness”. During the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, branding fosters resilience and helps businesses establish continuity. Together with the European Brand Institute, UNIDO provides a jointly developed service model, Branding for competitiveness and sustainable growth, that has already generated a number of success stories worldwide and across a variety of industries. Gerhard Hrebicek, founder and president of the Brand Global Summit continued: “We see how sustainable use of branding by UNIDO is a success. Brands can be carriers, which help us withstand the crisis.”. In that regard Farrukh Alimdjanov noted: “It has already generated a number of success stories worldwide and across a variety of industries, with UNIDO project beneficiaries (local manufacturers and MSMEs) engaging in umbrella branding that leads to improved productivity, competitiveness and market-access that goes beyond national borders.”. Margarete Schramböck, Federal Minister of Digital and Economic Affairs in Austria added: “A mixture of branding and digitalization is a vaccine in the form of digital learning and working from home. We can make sure that we create new jobs via digital transformations and nobody is left behind.” 

Discussing Brand Investments for Sustainability, keynote-speaker Weixi Gong, Investment and Technology Promotion Division and Coordinator at UNIDO Investment and Technology Network opened the panel by explaining how to create sustainability through investment in brands. Herbert Kovar, Managing Partner of Deloitte Austria, Stephan Unger, Professor at the Department of Economics and Business at Saint Anselm College in Boston, USA, Baybars Altuntas, Chairman of WBAF, Wolfgang Schiketanz, SCA Advisory of the Brand Global Select Fund, YANG Wei, Vice President of Royal Town Planning Institute in the United Kingdom and WU Guangquan, President of Shenzhen Federation of Industries discussed challenges and tools needed to better support and attract investments in and for brands. Stephan Unger laid the foundations by defining brand value as: “A well-known brand can actually charge premium relative to its competitors or generic brands.”, leading to: “Brand and intellectual property create economic value and therefore sustainability.”. Herbert Kovar continued by saying: “Intangibles-rich firms, which are most often SMEs, routinely encounter problems obtaining debt finance. Overcoming the barriers to lending against IP assets is essential at a national, European and global level.”. Showcasing the successful project of Milton Keynes, YANG Wei concluded: “If we can consider branding from the strategic and the sustainability perspective, we can create USPs and help our cities and countries thrive for generations to come!”

In the Future Talk, which focused on how to move forward during and after these difficult times, keynote-speaker Bobby Calder, Kellstadt Professor of Marketing at the Kellogg Graduate School of Management defined brand purpose as: “Brand purpose means linking the brand to a purpose in a way that strengthens the brand and makes it possible for both stakeholders and shareholders to benefit from the same investment.”. Monika Racek, CEO of ADMIRAL AG mentioned: “Having a sustainable brand is a key value driver. Having a sustainable brand means having a trustful brand!”. In regards to the financial sector, Andrea Gaal, member of the Supervisory Boards at Raiffeisen International talked about focusing more on sustainable practices: “Banking is seeing sustainability as a priority, to promote more energy efficient practices, acknowledge the social impact of the industry and also raise ethical questions when it comes to applying new technologies like artificial intelligence.” Hannes Kirchbaumer, Digital Marketing Expert, once again highlighted the importance of brands: “Branding has never been more important than now, because brands and clients are much closer than ever before.”. Patricia Neumann, Country General Manager at IBM Austria described IBM’s ambitions and goals throuroughly: “What we try with technology is to help clients on their way and there you can combine business and sustainability to become faster, more service-orientated, more client-focused and do things that really help to solve the big problems of the world.”