RIYADH — Almarai regains its position at the top after falling down to third in the 2018 rankings, and becomes the brand with the most positive Buzz among Saudi consumers, according to the 2019 YouGov BrandIndex Buzz Rankings. Mada enters the list in second while Al Baik drops down from the top to third in this year's list. YouGov BrandIndex measures the public's perception of brands on a daily basis across a range of metrics. The annual Buzz rankings are compiled using Buzz scores from the entire years' worth of data. Buzz scores measure whether people have heard anything positive or negative about a brand during the previous two weeks. Saudi Arabia's national flag carrier, Saudia, remains in fourth this year, while Alrajhi Bank moves up one position to ninth. The past year was not a promising one for electronic and technology brands in terms of Buzz rankings. Samsung fell down two places to seventh this year, while its competitor Apple slipped down one spot to eighth. The biggest decline was noted by Apple's smartphone brand, iPhone, which fell down four places to tenth in the 2019 rankings. Similarly, WhatsApp fell from second to fifth position. YouTube is the only tech brand that has shown improvement and climbed up two places to sixth in this year's list. The launch of YouTube Premium and Music last year seems to have been well-received by consumers and has contributed to positive Buzz around the brand. YouGov BrandIndex has also revealed which brands noted the most improvement in their Buzz score in 2019. Top is Mada, with a rise of +6.9 points to its Buzz score, going from +32.2 last year to +39.1 this year. Mada's performance not only made it the best improver of 2019 but also landed it a spot in the top ten rankings. Noon.com and Saudi Telecom come in next as the second and third most improved brands, with a change in score of +5.9 and +5.4, respectively. Following the price-rise debacle, Almarai has recorded marked improvement to its Buzz score (with a change in score of +5.3), and this also helped the brand regain the number one spot from third last year in the top 10 rankings. Huawei continues to show improvement and is placed in fifth in the list of improvers (+5.2). Food and beverage brands; Pepsi (+5.1) and Tasali (+3.6), and other brands such as Uber (+4.2), Mobily (+4.0) and Extra (+3.7), have recorded good improvement in their Buzz scores over the past year, making the top 10 improvers list.
