IPhone, Alrajhi Bank and Facebook topped the 2019 YouGov NextGen Word of Mouth Rankings in MENA
YouGovs daily brand BrandIndex, tracking tool for the UK, looks at the opinions of 18- to 34-year-olds gathered online last year, to discover the 10 most talked about brands with friends and family, whether in person, online or via social media.
In the UAE, digital brands dominate the top 10 list. However, KFC is the brand that has shown the most positive momentum and has moved from eighth to fifth last year. WhatsApp, on the other hand, has had a tough year in the top 10 brands and finished tenth with four out of this years ranking.
In Saudi Arabia, Almarai saw the biggest movement in the top ten, ranking five out of the top ten in 2018 and fifth in the 2019 rankings. In Egypt, three brands have made it to the top-10 list of Dream Park, Huawei and Souq.com, and in the United Arab Emirates, Emirates has re-entered the NBD Top 10 list.
One of the interesting movements in the region concerns two of the leading electronics companies, Apple and Samsung. In the UAE, Apple is in third place this year, while Samsung slumped from one place to sixth. In Saudi Arabia, both brands have reported a decline in their rankings in one place and are currently ranked fourth and ninth respectively. In fact, Apple has recorded year-over-year declines in Saudi Arabia, ranking it ahead of the rankings in 2017, third in 2018 and now fourth in the 2019 rankings. In Egypt, none of these brands were ranked in the top 10.
YouGov also revealed which brands have experienced the biggest improvement in the positive Word of Mouth score over the past 12 months. In the United Arab Emirates, the global streaming company Netflix recorded the biggest improvement in its brand outlook since last year, up 10.9 points from 68.4 this year to 57.6 last year. In Egypt, YouTube recorded the biggest improvement, from 52.0 last year to 62.8 this year. In Saudi Arabia, Huawei is the best developer of 2019, with an 8.0 rise in Word of Mouth Score.
In fact, Huawei seems to be generating positive conversation in all three markets and has shown tremendous progress in all three countries. In Egypt, in the UAE, it is ranked seventh on the list of top 10 brands for 2019, making it the fourth best developer of the year. In Saudi Arabia, Chinese manufacturers are not only the top developer of 2019, but its steady improvement has made it eighth on the list of top 10 brands this year.
