Emirates airline tops UAE brand rankings

Dubai: Emirates, which recently hired Hollywood celebrity Jennifer Aniston for a multi-million dollar TV commercial, emerged as the “most positively perceived brand” among consumers in the UAE, according to the 2015 BestBrand Rankings released on Monday.

The home-grown company, beating strong global names like Apple and Samsung, created the most brand noise in 2015 following the release of Aniston’s mega advert. “The airline notably caught consumer attention with [Aniston] in 2015, trending on social media,” YouGov, which conducted the review, said in a statement.

Another popular brand among consumers in the Arab region, WhatsApp, took the second spot in the rankings, followed by Apple in the third place. Apple has obviously attracted more brand followers after opting to set up its Middle East flagship store in Dubai’s Mall of the Emirates late last year.

Tech giant Samsung, which previously held the crown, slipped to the fourth place, while internet powerhouse Google fell to the fifth spot after ranking in the top three since 2013. Facebook and iPhone stuck to the sixth and seventh place, respectively.

Also gaining social media penetration in the Arab World, YouTube landed in the eighth position.

Etihad Airways, which also invested in a TV commercial ‘Flying Reimagined’ featuring actress Nicole Kidman, showed up in the ninth place.

The only real estate company to appear on the list, Dubai-based Emaar bagged the tenth position.

The 2015 rankings demonstrated the strong influence of digital mediums, with seven of the 10 positions bagged by technology names. "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," said 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 among consumers. Emirates, Etihad and Emaar are indicating their ability to do so."

The top ten brands on the list attracted the most number of “buzz scores” gathered by YouGov on a daily basis over the past 12 months.

YouGov had set up a tracker called “BrandIndex” to monitor 400 brands in the UAE and asked consumers if they had “heard anything positive or negative about a brand in the last two weeks through advertising, news or word of mouth. Buzz scores were assigned to each brand based on consumer feedback.

Top 10 brand winners in 2015

1.Emirates

2.WhatsApp

3.Apple

4.Samsung

5.Google

6.Facebook

7.iPhone

8.YouTube

9.Etihad

10.Emaar