PGE is the strongest brand in the energy industry in terms of media coverage in the latest edition of the Top Brand survey conducted by the Media Monitoring Institute (IMM) and Press magazine. An analysis of media information points to an intense transformation of the industry, marked by the pursuit of decarbonization, investments in renewable energy sources and nuclear technologies, as well as image crises and global turmoil in the raw materials market. Tauron and Energa are also in the TOP 3 brand strength classification.

PGE is the strongest brand in the industry in terms of media coverage

In the Top Brand 2025 ranking, the PGE Group took a decisive first place, with a brand strength more than twice that of Tauron, which came second in the ranking. This result was achieved thanks to strategic and widely reported investments in renewable energy sources and activities aimed at eliminating coal as a raw material. The most important news was the final investment decision made jointly with the Danish company Ørsted regarding Baltika 2. This largest wind farm in the Baltic Sea is to supply energy as early as 2027, meeting the needs of approximately 2.5 million Polish households. In addition, PGE gained publicity by announcing that it would allocate several hundred million zlotys to research in the field of nuclear energy and the analysis of three potential locations for nuclear power plants: in Bełchatów, Turów, and Konin. In the area of sponsorship activities promoting the PGE brand, the sports media reported on the successive rounds of the PGE Ekstraliga speedway league.

Tauron grows despite challenges

The Tauron Group ranked second, with a brand strength exceeding 2.2 million points, despite image challenges. A positive media image was built by investments in green energy, such as the launch of the Proszówek photovoltaic farm (55 MW capacity), where 100,000 bifacial (double-sided) panel modules were installed. Tauron also obtained over PLN 133 million from BGK for the construction of an RFNBO (renewable non-biogenic fuel) hydrogen production plant, which is expected to contribute to the company achieving climate neutrality as early as 2040. In connection with plans to modernize the power grid, the company signed a contract to develop an IT concept for managing 700,000 lighting points.

In terms of sponsorship activities, concerts by foreign stars, including Billie Eilish, Pitbull, and the Scorpions at Krakow’s Tauron Arena, attracted the interest of the wider public and the media. Meanwhile, Katowice hosted the Tauron Nowa Muzyka festival.

During the period under review, the company also struggled with an image crisis following last year’s floods, when the president of Wody Polskie (Polish Waters) accused it of an unplanned discharge of water into the Mietków reservoir. Despite Tauron’s explanation that the discharge was forced by the situation in another reservoir, residents of the Marszowice housing estate in Wrocław, which was at risk of flooding, expressed their outrage on social media.

Energa is also investing in nuclear power

Third place in the Top Brand ranking belongs to Energa, which focused its activities and communication on the strategic modernization of infrastructure. Energa-Operator has begun work on the design documentation for the power connection to the construction site of Poland’s first nuclear power plant. In order to build the competencies needed for energy and digital transformation, Energa-Operator has formed an alliance with ten universities to educate students in the technical competencies of the future. The media also reported on the appeals of the Pomeranian Entrepreneurship Council and the Provincial Social Dialogue Council to limit Orlen’s influence on the activities of the Energa Group.

In addition, Energa, Enea, and PGE Dystrybucja received PLN 617.67 million in funding from the Ministry of the Environment for the development of smart grids, which are designed to ensure more efficient transmission and faster power restoration after failures.

Leaders in positive messaging

In the case of PGE and Tauron, the strength of the brand largely stems from the very large number of publications and their reach. However, it is the sentiment index that shows which brands have been most effective in achieving a positive or neutral tone in media communications. In the period surveyed by IMM, the leaders in this respect were: GAZ-SYSTEM (1.76), Polenergia (1.73) and Energa (1.03). The high scores of these companies indicate that stable, substantive communication, unburdened by image crises and political disputes, yields results that positively shape the brand’s image in the media space.

The power of sports sponsorship

The largest number of media publications in the context of energy and raw materials brands was recorded on internet portals. Among online services, sportowefakty.wp.pl was the most active (over 10,400 publications), while Przegląd Sportowy dominated in the press (1,800). The high number of materials exposing brands was due to, among other things, reports related to sports sponsorship, including PGE Ekstraliga and the 30th edition of Enea Poznań Open. At the same time, economic websites (stooq.pl and biznes.pap.pl) were extremely important. During the period under review, the most information about the energy industry was written by Bartłomiej Sawicki (rp.pl, parkiet.com) and Bartłomiej Supernak (inwestycje.pl).

About the Top Brand ranking

The Top Brand 2025 survey by Press magazine and the Media Monitoring Institute covers over 17.1 million social media posts from Facebook, Instagram, X, and YouTube, 10.1 million messages on internet portals, and 1.3 million press articles published between July 1, 2024, and June 30, 2025. In order to select the 500 strongest brands in the media in each of the 50 industries, messages concerning 1,020 brands and companies were verified.

The most important indicator of the Top Brand ranking is media brand strength. This multidimensional criterion consists of values that allow for the most comprehensive assessment of brands’ presence in the media. These are: the number of mentions, audience reach, and audience sentiment index. The most important component of brand strength is impact, i.e., the estimated reach of information about the brand. The collected data is also analyzed in terms of sentiment, whose index reflects a synthetic indicator of the mood of mentions of the brand in the media.

Definitions:

  • Impact – the reach of a brand mention based on media consumption data. The index also takes into account knowledge about the habits of readers and audiences that influence the actual reception of content and the specifics of individual media;
  • Sentiment index – a coefficient based on tone; it reflects the share of positive, neutral, and negative publications in the total message about a given brand: the higher it is, the better;
  • Brand strength – the final value determining the place in the ranking; it is an index of several variables indicating both the number of contacts between recipients and the brand, as well as the qualitative assessment of the message.

The entire Top Brand survey is available in the November issue of “Press” magazine and on the website https://topmarka.eu

Source: IMM