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India’s largest IT company Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has become the most valuable Indian brand in 2022, according to the Kantar BrandZ India rankings. The company rose two places up the ranking to attain the No. 1 position that was held by HDFC Bank since the Kantar BrandZ India ranking was launched in 2014. Kantar, the world’s leading marketing data and analytics company, recently released the Kantar BrandZ Top 75 Most Valuable Indian Brands 2022 report that values the TCS brand as worth $45,519 million, putting the company at the top. TCS’ brand value jumped 212 per cent in 2022 from 2020. Storyboard18’s Shibani Gharat spoke to Deepender Rana, executive managing director, insights, South Asia, Kantar, and Soumya Mohanty, managing director, insights division, Kantar on the report. Listen in.

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Deepender Rana and Soumya Mohanty on Kantar’s BrandZ India Report

Indian brands are back in business. The Kantar BrandZ report that lists India’s top 75 most valuable brands says the country’s strongest brands have bounced back from the pandemic to increase their brand value by 35 percent CAGR since 2020.

Tata Consultancy Services is the most valuable Indian brand, according to the report. The spot was previously held by HDFC Bank for the past eight years. As per Kantar BrandZ analysis TCS’s brand value has been accelerated by global demand for automation and digital transformation following the pandemic.

India’s top 75 brands are now worth a combined USD 393 billion. According to the report, the top 10 most valuable Indian brands together contribute just over half of the ranking’s total value.

There are brands from 23 different categories in the 2022 Indian Top 75 list, out of which 14 are newcomers. Key newcomers to the ranking include Vi at number 15, Byju’s at number 19 and Adani Gas at number 21.

Coming back to the list, the top ten spots were taken by Tata Consultancy Services, HDFC Bank, Infosys, Airtel, Asian Paints, State Bank of India, LIC, Kotak Mahindra Bank, ICICI Bank and Jio.

There has been significant movement at the top, in addition to the two most valuable brands switching positions. There are two new entrants – Infosys which has moved up to number three from twelfth position, and ICICI Bank which has climbed two places to number nine. State Bank of India has also risen four places to number six.

[caption id="attachment_2040" align="alignnone" width="605"]<img src="https://images.storyboard18.com/storyboard18/most-valued-brands.jpg" alt="Most Valued Brands" width="605" height="237" class="size-full wp-image-2040" />  Most Valued Brands[/caption]

According to findings of the report, technology and banking brands account for over half of the total value of all the 75 brands. Six B2B tech brands and 11 Consumer tech brands contribute 35 percent to the total value of the ranking, reflecting the rise of tech in India.

The report states that, overall, B2B brands (tech, payments) are on average almost three times as valuable as B2C brands, reflecting the fact that many of the B2B brands play on the global stage while B2C are more focused on the domestic market.

'Six banking brands deliver 19 percent of the total value. Also notable for their performance are Insurance brands, which have performed well as the pandemic increased consumers’ focus on protection of life and health and Telecom Providers, led by Airtel and Jio which took full advantage of growth opportunities as everything moved online, from education to work to parties,’ the report says.

“India’s leading brands have grown at an exceptional rate, despite global economic headwinds, putting the disruption from COVID-19 behind them. Indeed, they have both driven and benefited from the transformation in consumer and business behaviour as a result of COVID-19, especially where it relates to the use of technology," said Deepender Rana, Executive Managing Director- South Asia, Insights Division, Kantar. 

He added, "The challenge now is to sustain momentum as inflation bites worldwide and consumers and businesses adjust to the new normal. Brand owners will need to work harder to identify and build on what makes worth paying for and ensure ROI on their marketing expenditure to avoid a margin squeeze.” 

TCS is India's most valuable brand: Kantar BrandZ report

It is an irony of sorts that HDFC Bank’s campaign that talks about fraud detection and prevention is now being accused of plagiarism. Created by advertising agency Kinnect, the campaign titled ‘Vigil Aunty’ is accused of being plagiarised from author and artist Appupen's character that was created in 2016 for the Indie satire comic called Halahala comics.

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Users have been flagging the uncanny resemblance to Appupen's original character across social media. 

The artist has also taken to Instagram to mock HDFC ad campaign through his comic strip which also includes HDFC campaign’s protagonist Anuradha (Anu) Menon, well-known for playing the character of Lola Kutty.

His caption read “Vigil Aunty’s journey from indie satire comic to mainstream bigbucks advertising is all about power and fear. And it changed her. Adspoof." 
<div style="width:80%;">
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The resemblance in HDFC Bank's Vigil Aunty and Appupen’s creation ends at the name though. 

Appupen’s satirical character is a saffron-clad, moral policing Vigil Aunty, while HDFC Bank’s protagonist (played by Menon) is a good samaritan who takes it upon herself to protect people from online financial frauds.

The HDFC campaign is a long-drawn initiative which will feature Menon in a series of videos, reels, and chat shows, as Vigil Aunty as she creates awareness on safe banking do's and don'ts. The new awareness initiative is targeted to complement the bank's popular 'Mooh Band Rakho' campaign which urges people not to share their confidential banking information with others.

While advertising agency Kinnect has declined to comment on the issue, an email sent to HDFC Bank remained unanswered at the time of publishing this report. 

Sambit Mohanty, creative head, McCann Worldgroup thinks that ‘Vigil Aunty’ is a great pun on ‘vigilante’ - and admittedly Appupen was the first to use it for a character - as part of his ‘Rashtraman’ comic series on Instagram.

“I feel the agency should’ve been more careful in its choice of nomenclature as it’s a well-known online satirical series. In a world where everything is perennially under scrutiny, such instances of intellectual property infringement can be glaring,” he notes.

However, Mohanty is quick to add that to give the agency the benefit of doubt, if the name wasn’t ‘inspired’ it ought to put out a disclaimer in this regard.



Plagiarism row: HDFC Bank’s Vigil Aunty campaign accused of being lifted

HDFC BANK