While RBC was named Canada’s most valuable brand for the sixth year, Kantar’s research has found that more Canadian brands are building momentum worldwide.

This year, the combined value of the country’s Top 30 brands surpassed the total value of the UK Top 30 brands for the first time, Kantar Canada president Scott Megginson (pictured above) pointed out. Additionally, Lululemon also entered the Kantar BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands for the first time earlier this year after reaching Canada’s top three in 2023.

The findings of the Kantar BrandZ Top 40 Most Valuable Canadian Brands 2024 were released in Toronto on Oct. 24, drawing on the opinions of more than 60,000 respondents of more than 800 brands spanning 65+ categories.

According to Kantar, one-third of Canada’s Top 40 were perceived to be “highly meaningful and different,” with further opportunities to accelerate their growth by predisposing more people to buy at the right price, being more present at the point of purchase and finding new space for growth.

“We know that building strong brands is important,” says Martin Guerrieria, head of Kantar BrandZ. “In the last 12 months, we’ve seen the influence of the brand actually growing within that share of total company values, from 30% to 32%, so we know that really strong brands are becoming more important, very well deserving of our attention.”

Despite challenging economic headwinds, Canada’s top brands have increased their brand value by 3% (USD $6.1 billion) over the last year.

With a brand value of USD $35.6 billion, RBC retained top spot for the sixth time since rankings began in 2019. For the second-straight year, RBC tracked the performance of the ranking itself, also growing 3%. Its high performance is due to its long-standing partnerships with Olympic teams (significant during an Olympic year) and a recent 16% increase in revenue.

As in 2023, TD remained at number two with a brand value of USD $22.5 billion. TD’s success has been credited, in part, to its reputation of being as much a tech brand as a financial one, according to Kantar.

Lululemon, meanwhile, stayed at number three with a brand value of $16.9 billion, which represents a slight drop in its Canadian valuation by 3%. Even with the drop, however, it remains in third by some margin.

At number 10, Dollarama is the fastest riser with 48% growth and a brand value of USD $5.2 billion. Featuring in the top 10 fastest-rising brands are retailers HomeSense at number 26 (+35%), Maxi at number 33 (+34%) and Winners at number 23 (+25%). Both HomeSense and Winners were also among the fastest-rising brands in 2023.

MAC Cosmetics is the highest new entry at number 11, with a brand value of USD $4.2 billion. After consolidation in the telecom industry, Videotron entered at number 24, while Carling entered at number 35, following analysis of the brand’s international financial contribution. Beldirect was another new entrant into the ranking, coming in at number 37.