The rankings placed Vodafone in second place, with Shell, Revolut and Barclays rounding out the top five most valuable brands. BP, BT, Tesco, Dove and Ariel made up the rest of the top 10.

BrandZ also painted a relatively positive view of brand performance in the UK, with 49 of the UK’s top 75 brands increasing in value despite a backdrop of sluggish GDP growth and ongoing cost of living challenges for households.

A third of the ranking’s overall value was in financial services companies, while telecommunications and retail lost ground, contributing 17% and 9% respectively, a decrease from 25% and 14% five years ago.

Revolut had the biggest year-on-year gain, with 92% increase to a value of $13.3bn, with HSBC also seeing 89% growth to hit $40.8bn.

Jodie Gillary, head of brand intelligence at Kantar, said: “It’s fantastic to see the upward movement in the numbers but there’s a risk this could be more of a short-term bounce than a long-term boom.  Our analysis of brands’ equity suggests that many haven’t yet built the momentum they need to sustain demand in today’s low-growth economy, and that’s a concern for boardrooms.”

Gillary added the big growth opportunity for brands is in forming emotional connections with customers, including meeting consumer needs and fitting into their lifestyles.

“Consumers’ use of AI is making this even more obvious because we typically search for brands based on specific ideas and requirements of what we’re looking for.  If a business’ relevance isn’t clear, then large language models won’t mention it and a sale won’t happen. 

“One of the most effective ways the top brands are doing this and creating emotional connection is through investing in their cultural relevance, for example building fandoms and communities and offering immersive experiences.”