Borussia Dortmund last night won the award for "Best Viral Brand of 2021" at the 14th edition of the renowned German Brand Summit, which was held at Frankfurt Airport. BVB Managing Director Carsten Cramer and Head of Communications Sascha Fligge were in attendance at the new Fraport Visitor Centre to receive the award.

The honour of "Best Viral Brand" is awarded to a company that boasts an above-average presence and strikes the most positive tone in online media and on social media platforms. To determine the winner, several hundred million German-language online sources were reviewed. 

"We spent a year analysing the complete online virality of more than 17,500 brands with more than 360 million virality signals, and looked to see who struck the most positive communicative tone last year. That was Borussia Dortmund, a brand that connects a lot with its community, but also has communication that is managed interactively," explained Jörg Forthmann, Managing Director at the Institute for Management and Economic Research, before adding: "In addition, BVB assumes social responsibility and in this respect is a bit of a projection of what we all want."

"I believe it to be a sign of enormous recognition that we're being honoured by the jury for our dialogue-intensive interaction, especially in times when we cannot play football in front of our fans and in a season in which not everything has been positive to date," said Carsten Cramer. "The fact that we are able to reach our fans so successfully in the digital world, exchange ideas with them in a positive manner and connect with them in a lasting way despite all the volatility surrounding results in football serves as motivation for all of us at BVB in these difficult times."

In addition to Borussia Dortmund, the science and technology company MERCK and the industrial technology company ROBERT BOSCH (Integrated Communication Award) as well as the chemical group BASF (German Image Award) won prizes at the 14th German Brand Summit.