Revealed: Top 10 brands in UAE, Emirates leads again

Dubai's flagship carrier has topped consumer brand sentiment in the UAE for the third year.

Dubai's flag carrier sits ahead of eight digital brands in the UAE's top 10, led by instant messaging behemoth WhatsApp in second place.
Smartphone heavyweight iPhone rises five spots since this time last year to third place, making it the biggest Buzz score improver in the Emirates over the past 12 months, taking the lead over competitor Samsung Galaxy in tenth.
YouGov used Buzz scores to compile the rankings. Buzz 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 10 brands with the highest average Buzz score, and the largest Buzz score improvement over the past 12 months. 
Smartphone brand sentiment rose the most across 2017, with three market leading mobile brands iPhone, Samsung Galaxy and Nokia sitting at the top of the biggest Buzz improvers list. 
Meanwhile tech manufacturer Apple is the fourth brand with the highest positive consumer brand sentiment across the year, and the ninth most improved. Rival Samsung sits in sixth place overall but improves more than Apple, in fourth place in the improvers top 10.
According to YouGov's global daily brand tracker, BrandIndex, which surveys consumer opinion about over 500 brands in the UAE, behind WhatsApp, other online media giants continued to resonate very positively among consumers last year with Facebook, Google and YouTube maintaining top ten spots in fifth, eighth and ninth respectively. Google also sits on the top 10 most improved list in fifth place for 2017, ahead of Instagram in sixth.
French hypermarket chain Carrefour grabs seventh position, accompanying Emirates as the only other non-tech brand in the top 10 for Buzz among UAE consumers throughout the year. 
However, flydubai, Dettol and Almarai all demonstrate an increase in positive chatter among consumers featuring in the top 10 improvers list in seventh, eighth and tenth respectively. 
"The Buzz score shows how positively brands are resonating with consumers on a daily basis, and ultimately indicates to marketers the level and direction of recent brand exposure. As a leading market in the adoption of digital technologies, it is no surprise to see consumers in the UAE demonstrate considerable resonance with leading tech brands. This trend is clearly demonstrated in 2017 by the Best Brand Rankings featuring eight digital brands for the first time, and three smartphone brands sitting at the top of the improvers list," said Scott Booth, Head of Data Products in Mena.
UAE Top 10 Best Brand Rankings 2017
1. Emirates
2. WhatsApp
3. iPhone
4. Apple
5. Facebook
6. Samsung
7. Carrefour
8. Google
9. YouTube
10. Samsung Galaxy 
UAE Top 10 Most Improved Best Brand Rankings 2017
1. iPhone
2. Samsung Galaxy
3. Nokia
4. Samsung
5. Google
6. Instagram
7. flydubai
8. Dettol
9. Apple
10. Almaraia
waheedabbas@khaleejtimes.com