The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) was this week announced as one of the UK's leading business brands in the Business Superbrands 2008 list.
The announcement follows a robust selection process tapping into the views of an independent and voluntary council of experts and over 1500 business professionals, the latter surveyed by research agency YouGov.
Featuring at No 244, ahead of Alliance Boots, ING and IBM, this is the first time the RIBA has been included in the Business Superbrands.
The only professional institute to feature in the Top 500, the RIBA was selected from strict judging criteria which looked at quality, reliability and distinction of a number of brands.
The RIBA's brand manager, Jonathan Smith said of the announcement: "This is a fantastic result for the RIBA and demonstrates how far the Institute's profile has risen since the 2002 re-brand and re-organisation.
When you compare the RIBA against some of the blue-chip giants that we feature alongside and contrast the size of their marketing budgets to ours, we've achieved a great deal.
Our focus for the coming year is to continue building on our reputation by championing the role of architecture in delivering good design for the benefit of society."
more: architecture.com (104)