Pedigree (performance of similar brands from the same company) is no longer a major factor to evaluate the success of a brand launch. The key parameter now is visibility of products.

This is among the interesting findings of the 12th Business Standard Annual Brand Derby held in association with market research agency, Indica Research Consumer Insights.

An overwhelming 85 per cent of senior marketing professionals, who responded to the annual survey by Business Standard, mentioned visibility as the main factor for the success of a brand launch.

The details of the survey, which was carried out in the top five metros, have been published in the strategist on Monday.

The winner of the race was Bingo, the snacks brand launched by tobacco-to-hotels conglomerate ITC that launched a high-decibel and humourous advertising campaign coupled with high visibility racks stocking the brand across the smallest of retail points.

"The launch of Bingo was a combination of good distribution push, great point-of-purchase displays across the country and developing flavours that appealed to Indian tastes. The brand was able to capture a lot of share in such a small time," said one senior marketing professional. The names of Derby respondents are kept confidential.

Respondents also gave re-branding efforts the thumbs up. If the brand transition of cellular service provider Vodafone got impressive marks, so did other re-branding exercises like the change in the identity of financial services brand, UTI Bank [Get Quote] into Axis Bank and the rechristening of consumer goods major Hindustan Lever [Get Quote] to Hindustan Unilever, which managed to enter the top five.

Vodafone was a close second to Bingo as the respondents voted for the highly effective simple message: Hutch is now Vodafone. Simplicity also won Axis Bank a lot of bonus points.

However, brand managers who watch the Derby closely may have some reason for concern.

This year's Derby was largely a two-horse race. Importantly, the gap between the top two brands and the rest widened. Only two of the 38 brands that participated in the Derby had more than 50 per cent of respondents voting for them as very successful launches.

Detailed reports in the strategist and at www.business standard.com