Digital brands win largest share of positive sentiment from consumers in 2015 UAE BestBrand Rankings

Digital brands dominate seven places in the UAE’s top 10 most positively perceived brands for 2015 following new entries from WhatsApp and YouTube, according to the 2015 BestBrand Rankings, launched today by global market research company, YouGov.

The BestBrand Rankings are compiled using YouGov’s flagship daily brand tracker BrandIndex which tracks over 400 brands in the UAE. Using BrandIndex’s Buzz score, which is calculated by asking consumers daily if they have ‘heard anything positive or negative about a brand in the last two weeks, through advertising, news or word-of-mouth’ the Rankings portray the top 10 brands with the highest average Buzz scores over the past 12 months

After making an impression in the first half of 2015 knocking Samsung off the top of the Rankings last June, home-grown mega brand Emirates has held on to its crown to lead positive sentiment across the year for the first time since 2013. However, following Emirates, we witness technology brands take the next seven Rankings with debut appearances from WhatsApp and YouTube in second and eighth place following soaring social media penetration in the Arab world.

Apple gains a place in third after choosing the Emirates to open Apple stores in the Middle East for the first time in 2015, whilst Samsung slips from first to fourth place. Google falls to fifth after ranking in the top three since 2013, followed by non-movers Facebook and iPhone which stand strong in sixth and seventh. Technology based brands have steadily taken over the Rankings in recent years with three ranks in 2012 and 2013, five ranks in 2014 and totaling seven ranks in 2015.

Fellow national airline Etihad Airways also gained positive share of voice amongst consumers last year with its “Flying Reimagined” TV commercial starring actress Nicole Kidman, and enters the Rankings for the first time in ninth place. National property pioneer Emaar rounds up the 2015 top 10 maintaining a strong connection with consumers in tenth with continued project development.

“With seven of the top 10 Rankings now taken up by technology brands in the UAE, the BestBrand Rankings illustrate the weight of digital mediums to engage consumers in the Arab world. This demonstrates the rising prevalence of those brands in their everyday lives,” says YouGov MENA Managing Director, Kailash Nagdev. “Those brands who can diversify their marketing strategies and embrace those digital mediums could also stand to win high levels of positive Buzz amongst consumers. According to BrandIndex, Emirates, Eithad Airways and Emaar are indicating their ability to do so.”