The whole country can profit from the success of MagyarBrands

On 17 April the most successful Hungarian brands received their MagyarBrands award in the Budapest Operetta Theatre. At the cocktail party after the award ceremony our magazine interviewed Dr János Serényi, the new president of the MagyarBrands programme.

He told us that during the 20 years he had spent as head of the McCann Erickson Budapest Advertising Agency he had observed and taken part in many brand building processes. He is convinced that Hungary needs strong Hungarian brands because of many reasons, e.g. international reputation, innovative skills, etc. Despite the fact that other programmes such as the Hungarian Product Grand Prize and Excellent Hungarian Product already exist, the president thinks that there is room for MagyarBrands. The programme, which started three years ago, is unique and its selection procedure is completely different than the others’. Experts of the programme take seven aspects – with different weight – into consideration when creating a complex index number. Mr Serényi knows that in Hungary the majority of shopping decisions is still made ‘by wallets and debit cards’, but he also senses a trend that a growing number of consumers understand how their choices influence other fields of life. For instance by buying Hungarian products they can save jobs. In 2012 200 consumer and 100 business brands were awarded and the president was glad to see many new winners, and among them several medium-sized and small companies. His opinion is that what unites these 300 brands is their attitude: instead of complaining about economic hardships they simply concentrate on giving their best to be successful. The MagyarBrands programme also awarded three special prizes: in the field of culture to the Hungarian Operetta Theatre, in the domain of innovation to the Metapay system and in the area of working for the society to the Magic Lamp Foundation. All three of them were rewarded for their exemplary work. MagyarBrands 2013 is about to commence soon, the deadline for applications is 31 June 2013.