These brands may not come as much of a surprise.

Emirates airline, dairy giant Almarai and WhatsApp generated the most positive buzz in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt respectively, findings from the 2019 annual YouGov BrandIndex Buzz Rankings showed.

YouGov BrandIndex measures the public’s perception of brands on daily basis across a range of metrics. Buzz scores measure whether people have heard anything positive or negative about a brand during the previous two weeks.

In the UAE, Whatsapp and Samsung ranked second and third while in Saudi Arabia, Mada (The Saudi payments network) and Al Baik (food chain) followed Almarai. In Egypt, Google and Youtube ranked second and third respectively.

In the UAE, consumer electronic brands did not have a promising year in 2019. Samsung climbed up to the second position from sixth in the 2018 rankings but dropped down to third this year. Apple’s score also declined two positions in 2019.

The report noted a surge in the popularity of Youtube in the region mainly due to the launch of YouTube Premium and Music last year.

In Egypt, YouTube is the third best brand in terms of positive Buzz. In the UAE and Saudi Arabia, it is ranked sixth.

In the UAE and Egypt, Netflix is the “most improved” brand in 2019 according to the report, while Mada is the “most improved” in Saudi Arabia.

Noon.com is the second-best improver in UAE and Saudi Arabia and the fourth “most improved” brand in Egypt.

Souq’s rebrand as Amazon.ae seems to have generated a lot of chatter among UAE residents, the report said, as the brand is ranked ninth “most improved’ in the UAE.

(Writing by Gerard Aoun; editing by Seban Scaria)

(gerard.aoun@refinitiv.com)

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