Mirror, mirror on the wall, who has the strongest brand in the country?

The agency Jung von Matt has identified the top 50 German start-up brands. Most of the brands are primarily known for their clever marketing on social networks such as Instagram.

As a young company in particular, you can achieve a lot with good marketing: Awareness, image, new customers. In Germany, the brands Air Up, Vivid and Gorillas have made it into the top three in this respect, according to the results of a survey by the agency Jung von Matt. Air Up and Gorillas in particular are known for their high profile advertising. Vivid, on the other hand, is surprisingly in second place, with competitor N26 not even in the top 50. However, Vivid also has a strong online presence, with many reviews of the fintech's products coming from Youtubers.

Trade Republic is in fourth place, followed by the delivery services Flaschenpost and Flink. In seventh place is AboutYou, eighth place goes to Ankerkraut, ninth place to Ooia and tenth place to Everdrop. It is clear that no one sector dominates. However, there are clear differences in the various aspects of the survey. If it were only a question of awareness, the first places would have gone to Flixbus, Hello Fresh and AboutYou. Flixbus would be in 46th place and Hello Fresh in the last of the 50 possible places. Jung von Matt included the age of the start-ups in the ranking in order to compensate for such an advantage.

There are also differences among the top ten: In the uniqueness category, Air Up is far ahead of its competitors. 78% of respondents consider the brand to be special, with Vivid in second place with 64%. It is also clear how much sympathy the Hamburg start-up Ankerkraut enjoys: In the categories of identification, innovation, likeability and trustworthiness, it is always in the top places. However, it is also the oldest start-up in the top ten, having been founded eight years ago.

Almost all of the companies have a strong marketing presence on social networks such as Instagram and work actively with influencers. Hardly any brand has not been featured in the stories of German internet stars.

Paul-Christian Brenndörfer, who was responsible for the study at Jung von Matt together with Jonas Bailly, explains the weighting of the aspects: "One third of the score is made up of brand awareness and age, another third is made up of the two factors of identification and likeability. The final third is determined by softer factors: Trustworthiness, sustainability, innovation, uniqueness and relevance."

7,538 participants took part in the online survey.