BrandSpark and Newsweek Celebrate Brands Prevailing Amidst Economic Uncertainty

Newsweek

05-06-2025

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On a sunny rooftop in downtown Manhattan Wednesday, Newsweek partnered with BrandSpark, a research and consulting firm, to host a lively event recognizing the winners of its 2025 Best New Product Awards and its 2025 BrandSpark Most Trusted Brands Awards.
"There's no bigger recognition you can earn than the approval of the consumer," Robert Levy, president and CEO of BrandSpark International, told attendees. "For almost two decades, we've made this consumer voice available to brands and products like yours to demonstrate your superiority in an increasingly crowded and competitive market."
This year, BrandSpark recognized the most trusted brands across 284 categories, polling almost 30,000 shoppers across the nation and sorting over 162,000 brand evaluations.
Between mingling with brand representatives and coordinating the evening's program, Levy told Newsweek in an exclusive interview that he's "always impressed by how the brands keep innovating" to further build trust with their consumers.
Citing public concerns about economic uncertainty, Levy said trust and consumers' expectations are both changing. Fears of financial instability have lead consumers to cheaper alternatives or to find ways to save money, but Levy said consumers aren't yet ready to give up trying new products, so there's still room for marketers to win over consumers.
Newsweek/BrandSpark Best New Product Awards at 75 Varick Street on June 4, 2025.
Newsweek/BrandSpark Best New Product Awards at 75 Varick Street on June 4, 2025.
Weston Kloefkorn
"If they think it's worth it, they're still willing to pay a little more for a product," Levy said. "It's not only interesting to find out what makes a good product, but also how effective the marketers are at communicating the benefits [of their product] and why consumers should either try, switch or continue to be loyal."
"A lot of the strong brands don't take anything for granted," he said. "The ones who are always on top, they keep innovating."
Among the recipients of BrandSpark's 2025 Best New Product are the Hershey's and Reese's flavors of One Brands Protein Bars and Easy Healthcare Corporation's Premom Premium Prenatal Vitamins.
Vanessa Solorzano, an associate brand manager at The Hershey Company, told Newsweek that a lot of cross-collaboration went into creating the protein bars, noting that it took many different teams to create a product that would usher some of America's most well-known flavors into the protein space.
Cheeseburger sliders are passed around at the 2025 Best New Product Awards and BrandSpark's Most Trusted Brands Awards Event in New York City on June 4, 2025.
Cheeseburger sliders are passed around at the 2025 Best New Product Awards and BrandSpark's Most Trusted Brands Awards Event in New York City on June 4, 2025.
Weston Kloefkorn
Natalie Roberts, director of business development at Easy Healthcare Corporation, also told Newsweek that the company was thrilled to receive the award for Premom because it "really helps to recognize our passion and commitment" in supporting women in "every step of their fertility journey."
Guests sampled juicy cheeseburger sliders and mini grilled cheeses as servers passed around Aperol spritzes and gin cocktails during the networking reception. Over those refreshments, Suzanne Clerkin, chief marketing officer at Jiffy Lube, told Newsweek what an honor it was to be recognized as the most trusted oil and lube change service in the U.S.
"Our service center employees are highly trained and dedicate every day to taking care of vehicles and to evolving our service offerings to meet the evolving vehicle needs," Clerkin said.
Levy noted during his presentation that this year's award was a particularly impressive accomplishment for Jiffy Lube because brands in the service sector tend to be fragmented, leading to a lower trust share.
From left to right: BrandSpark's Adam Bellisario, Kim Diamond Teperman and Robert Levy at the 2025 Best New Product Awards and BrandSpark's Most Trusted Brands Awards Event in New York City on June 4, 2025....
From left to right: BrandSpark's Adam Bellisario, Kim Diamond Teperman and Robert Levy at the 2025 Best New Product Awards and BrandSpark's Most Trusted Brands Awards Event in New York City on June 4, 2025. More
Weston Kloefkorn
Clerkin attributed the Jiffy Lube's success to the company's efforts to leave "drivers in the driver's seat," plus the slate of offerings that make it easy for customers to receive free and instant online estimates, to locate centers to go for service and to stay updated on their vehicles through transparent service reviews.
Aperol spritzes being made at the 2025 Best New Product Awards and BrandSpark's Most Trusted Brands Awards Event in New York City on June 4, 2025.
Aperol spritzes being made at the 2025 Best New Product Awards and BrandSpark's Most Trusted Brands Awards Event in New York City on June 4, 2025.
Weston Kloefkorn
BIC's achievements as the most trusted lighters was also highlighted on Wednesday night. BIC received the highest trust share of any brand with 94 percent.
"I'm honored to be here at the Most Trusted Brand Awards, accepting this recognition on behalf of BIC lighters," Jeany Mui, the company's director of marketing, told Newsweek. "Every BIC lighter undergoes more than 50 separate automatic quality checks during the manufacturing process. Safety and reliability are of the utmost importance. Trust is earned and we're proud to be a brand people rely on every day."
Another major winner of the evening was Lysol, which was the top Most Trusted Brand in four categories: bathroom cleaner, disinfectant spray, laundry disinfectant and toilet bowl cleaner.
Dominic Ruffolo, an associate brand manager at Reckitt Benkesier for Lysol Cleaners, told Newsweek, "This award means a lot to us, because at Lysol, we really care about what people think about our product. It's a lot about safety and really driving home how we disinfect and kill germs.
"We have so much consumer testing to make sure that these products really work and deliver," Ruffolo said. "We don't just build trust overnight. We've been around for over 100 years. It's a business that we've built for a very long time and are continuing to deliver."
Young-Soon Perry, staff scientist at The Hershey Company, left, and Vanessa Solorzano, associate brand manager at The Hershey Company, right, pose with their awards at the 2025 Best New Product Awards and BrandSpark's Most Trusted...
Young-Soon Perry, staff scientist at The Hershey Company, left, and Vanessa Solorzano, associate brand manager at The Hershey Company, right, pose with their awards at the 2025 Best New Product Awards and BrandSpark's Most Trusted Brands Awards Event in New York City on June 4, 2025. One Protein Bars' new Reese's and Hershey's flavors were recognized by BrandSpark as one of the best new products of 2025. More
Weston Kloefkorn
Melissa Clemance, vice president of brand for RE/MAX, also attended Wednesday's awards on behalf of the company, which was recognized as the most trusted real estate agency by BrandSpark this year.
"Trust is definitely one of the highest factors that consumers look for when they're looking for a real estate agent," Clemance explained.
"In the real estate category, there's been a lot of new entrants over the last five to 10 years," she continued. "I think that element of having trust attached to [RE/MAX] helps the whole brand hold so much more power overall, both to the consumer and what they can expect when they work with a RE/MAX agent, and also to the agents and the pride of being part of that brand."
As the sun began to set on the Manhattan skyline, event attendees moved inside for presentations and a fireside chat between Levy and Newsweek's editor-in-chief, Jennifer H. Cunningham.
Cunningham emphasized just how important trust is to every brand, including Newsweek and other media outlets and publications.
"Trust means everything. Trust is the covenant between journalism and the consumer," Cunningham said. "If we don't have trust, we have nothing. You can have a Pulitzer Prize-winning piece of reporting, but if the readers don't trust you, no one's going to read your story."
Newsweek Editor-in-Chief Jennifer H. Cunningham at the 2025 Best New Product Awards and BrandSpark's Most Trusted Brands Awards Event in New York City on June 4, 2025.
Newsweek Editor-in-Chief Jennifer H. Cunningham at the 2025 Best New Product Awards and BrandSpark's Most Trusted Brands Awards Event in New York City on June 4, 2025.
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She said that Newsweek has sought to re-engender trust among readers through initiatives like the publication's fairness meters. Cunningham revealed that of the over 2 million votes that have been cast on Newsweek's website, 70 percent have rated the magazine's content as fair.
"Our centrist position is definitely by design. It's not by coincidence," Cunningham said. "We really want to be a platform for every ideological background, every person, every socioeconomic background, every location in the United States. We want to be a place where you will hear both sides."
She said that this framework isn't applied just to the publication's politics coverage, but across the entire newsroom. To achieve this, she said the leadership team vigorously consumes content across every spectrum, while the reporters dedicate their time to original reporting that brings news "from the horse's mouth."
Cunningham added that this also means bringing readers lists like BrandSpark's rankings.
"Our audience is very much your audience, and I think what we both have in common is we're striving to give our consumer or our audience a very high quality product," she said. A product "that is well made, that people stand behind and that we want them to keep coming back to."