Saudia is the most positively talked about brand among millennials in Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia’s airline brand, Saudia, is the most positively talked about brand amongst youngsters in the country. Saudia has replaced Apple, which was on the top of the list the previous year but has slipped down to number three this year. However, smartphone giant iPhone has climbed up to the second position from number four last year.

YouGov’s daily brand tracking tool, BrandIndex, considered the opinions of respondents aged between 18 and 34, collected online over the past year, to discover the 10 brands they’ve talked about the most positively with friends and family, whether in person, online or through social media.

Al Baik has seen an improvement in its brand image and moved to the sixth position from ninth last year. Consumer electronics giant Samsung on the other hand has seen a decline in its image and has moved down to eighth spot this year. While Facebook lost its spot in the list, real estate group, Bin Laden and beverages brand Almarai have made an impressive entry into the list at spot nine and ten, respectively.

YouGov also looked at brands that have experienced the biggest uplift in positive word of mouth over the last year. Beverages seem to be particularly resonating with the Saudi youngsters. Aquafina has seen the greatest improvement in its brand image among millennials this year, with a change in score of +11.6. Brands like Fanta, Sprite and Diet Pepsi have also seen significant improvement in their brand perception this year.

Scott Booth, Head of YouGov BrandIndex in MENA commented, “YouGov BrandIndex enables us to cross-reference WOM with positive Buzz and allows us to measure the most talked about brands among young consumers. The top ten list has a mix of travel and airline brands, consumer brands, financial services and real estate brands. These brands have managed to harness the power of word of mouth and have been successful in shaping a positive brand image.”

These rankings are based upon YouGov BrandIndex’s Word of Mouth metric, which measures whether a respondent has discussed a brand with friends or family (whether in-person, online, or through social media) in the past two weeks. Asked of consumers aged between 18- 34 years and filtered by positive Buzz - to sift out those who talk well of a brand from those who don’t. Scores averaged across the 52 weeks leading up to 31 August, 2018.