lego ford explorer

Score big for plastic - Lego has replaced Ferrari as the world's most powerful brand. The Danish toymaker ranked number one in this year's edition of the annual list complied by leading brand valuation experts Brand Finance, replacing Ferrari, which dropped to ninth place.

The Italian automaker has ruled the roost since 2013 when it topped the list, and it was again ranked as the world's most powerful brand last year. The massive drop down the list is therefore quite spectacular, and for the Prancing Horse and its owners, a bit of a blow to prestige.

As Brand Finance puts it, Ferrari remains a very strong brand (brand value actually increased by 18% this year), but the hold it has is slowly diminishing - the increasing number of years without an F1 title has meant that the sheen of glory from its 1990s golden era is beginning to wear thin.

top 10 most power brands 2015

It remains to be seen if the planned increase in production volumes for its road cars will aid branding rather than saturate it further - Luca di Montezemolo kept a strict cap on production to maintain the exclusivity of the brand, but since his departure, chairman Sergio Marchionne has suggested that this policy will be relaxed to boost revenues, and the danger of over-exploitation is always there.

Lego, meanwhile, has no such issues to contend with - more is indeed better. In a tech-saturated world, parents have definitely approved of the back-to-basics creativity Lego encourage. Perception in the brand has been incredibly strong, and the highly successful Lego Movie also helped cement things. No toying around with it, then.