Emirates airline tops ranking of UAE's best brands for fifth year

Adidas and Samsung were second and third on list compiled by YouGov that measures the brand health of companies in the country

An Emirates plane at the 2021 Dubai Airshow. Reuters

Emirates, the world's biggest long-haul airline, topped YouGov's Best Brand Rankings in the UAE for the fifth consecutive year amid a steady recovery by the Dubai carrier and the overall aviation industry.

The airline scored 58.1 – well ahead of the next best brand – on the annual list, which is based on an index score that measures the overall brand health calculated by taking the average of the impression, quality, value, satisfaction, recommend and reputation scores of a company for the full year.

"Despite the flight restrictions in place for an extended period, the airline maintains its strong perceptions among UAE residents, allowing it to maintain first rank," YouGov said in the report released on Wednesday.

Content consumption on social media and other online platforms increased over the past year-and-a-half, especially during the Covid-19 movement restrictions, further boosting digital brand exposure.

YouGov's annual rankings show the brands with the highest average index scores between October 1, 2020, and September 30, 2021.

Adidas and Nike, two of the world's biggest sportswear manufacturers, made their debut on the list, coming in second and sixth, respectively. Saudi-based dairy manufacturer Almarai rose four places to settle in fourth place.

Technology brands dominated the list, occupying six out of the 10 spots. Samsung jumped two places into the third spot while Apple remained seventh, with its flagship iPhone in eighth position.

The rivals sought to continue their dominance in the global smartphone market, with Samsung diving further into the foldable category with its Fold3 and Flip3 in August, and Apple releasing the camera feature-heavy iPhone 13 series a month later.

YouTube, Google and Meta Platform's WhatsApp were ranked fifth, ninth and 10th, respectively. All brands posted declines in their rankings, with WhatsApp moving down eight places.

Most improved brands

Noon.com, the e-commerce platform set up by Emaar Properties founder Mohamed Alabbar, was the most improved brand on the YouGov list.

It was followed by KFC and Expo 2020 Dubai – which on Monday announced that it welcomed more than 3.5 million visitors since it opened on October 1– on the second and third places, respectively.

A brand had to be tracked for over 18 months to appear in the improvers list, according to YouGov.

Majid Al Futtaim's loyalty programme Share and Red Bull rounded off the top five most improved brands list. Amazon and its on-demand video streaming platform Amazon Prime were in sixth and seventh position.