Almarai named most positively perceived brand in Kingdom

Middle East megabrand Almarai has been named the most positively perceived brand in Saudi Arabia, according to the 2016 Mid-Year Best Brand Rankings just released by global market research company YouGov.
The Mid-Year Best Brand Rankings which launched across 26 countries globally, including the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, are compiled using the Buzz score from YouGov’s daily flagship brand tracker — BrandIndex. Buzz asks residents daily if they have 'heard anything positive or negative about a brand in the last two weeks, through advertising, news or word-of-mouth’. Respondents are interviewed on YouGov’s online panel.
Almarai has created the highest brand buzz scores of over 300 brands in Saudi Arabia throughout 2016 so far, and also features in the Egypt Top 10 Mid-Year Rankings in eighth place. This year has brought a tremendous social media presence for the ‘Quality you can trust’ brand whose film on breastfeeding became the second most shared film in the world within one week of launching. Subsequently Almarai also became the third most popular FMCG brand on Facebook.
Holding onto second place for two years running is mobile messaging phenomenon WhatsApp. The introduction of end-to-end encryption providing full protection to users’ privacy was a welcome comfort to WhatsApp account holders in the Kingdom this year. Samsung meanwhile drops two places in to third since this time last year but has continued to create hype with the launch of the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge.
Airlines have made a pronounced entry into the Mid-Year Rankings this year. New domestic flights and exclusive services see Saudia (Saudi Airlines) make its debut appearance in sixth. Emirates now sits in ninth after a three year absence and is also the number one brand in the UAE.