Saudi Gazette JEDDAH —Almarai, the largest integrated dairy foods company in the world, topped the list of companies with highest brand awareness in Saudi Arabia for the year 2015, beating big names like Samsung and Apple, which fell in second and third places, respectively. The rankings, which were recently published by YouGov BrandIndex, a global market research company, evaluates over 400 brands in Saudi Arabia, and is the first and only daily measure of brand perception among the public in the Kingdom. YouGov calculates rankings based on measures of brand sensitivity such as a ‘buzz score', which calculates brand perception based on whether people have heard something positive or negative about the brand through media or word of mouth. It also uses tools such as company's customer satisfaction, brand awareness and reputation. "2015 was a significant year for us in terms of implementing world class communication through social media. We also won the ‘Best Arab Company 2015' for effectively using social media to create brand awareness," said Abdullah Al Otaibi, Almarai, PR Manager of Almarai Company. He added that aggressive campaigning and smart strategies contributed to this achievement. Last year, their Ramadan campaign won the highest viewership of the year and accumulated more than 42 million views on their media platforms. Otaibi told the Saudi Gazette that Almarai is one of the leading brands in the region and a pioneer in terms of introducing new communications techniques and approaches to strengthen brand awareness which they started implementing since 2012. "Almarai as a brand plays a vital role in the lives of over 18 million consumers daily in which we provide them with quality and nutritious food and beverages that enrich their lives," he said, adding that Almarai ensures to provide its consumers with high quality nutritious products as well as world class brand communications. This year too, Almarai has lined up campaigns to increase their customer base. "We are working on many communication campaigns that adopt teaser approach and reverse engineering as well as many CSR, documentaries, digital and social media campaigns that will capture the hearts and minds of our consumers," said Otaibi. Brandindex declared ‘Al-Baik', a household name and Saudi fast food company that offers scrumptious fried chicken, in the fourth position in terms of brand popularity, whereas WhatsApp, a brand new entry in the list of top brands, occupied the fifth place.
