• by Steve McClellan  @mp_mcclellan, September 23, 2015

Brazilian beer brand Skol is the most valuable brand in Latin America, according to the latest edition of Millward Brown’s BrandZ rankings for the region. 

Skol, an AB InBev brand, has risen 20% in 2015 to a value of $8.5 billion, according to BrandZ’s calculations. 

Skol dethroned Corona, which drops to second with growth of 6% also to $8.5 billion. (Skol climbed into first with its bigger growth rate.) 

The cumulative value for the top 50 brands in the region was up 2% to $132 billion, out-performing a composite index from the region’s six major stock indexes, which is down 14% for the year. Millward concludes that those results underscore the importance of investing in brands “even in hard times.” 

The Beer sector dominated the Top 10 with five of the top 10 positions including four that are owned by AB InBev (Skol, Corona, Brahma and Modelo).  The fifth brand on the list was Aguila. 

Overall the beer sector contributed 29% of total brand value of the Top 50 LatAm 2015, reflecting high local consumption. 

Gonzalo Fuentes, CEO LatAm for Millward Brown, said that “creating strong emotional connections that resonate with the growing middle class as well as low income families” is essential to creating strong brand propositions. Especially, he added, when economic conditions are challenging. 

More on the BrandZ Latin America study can be found here.