Samsung achieved the highest ‘buzz score’ in a brand ratings survey in Saudi Arabia, which indicates consumers have heard something positive about the brand by advertising, news or word of mouth in the past two weeks.

International research consultancy YouGov released its 2013 BrandIndex Annual Buzz Rankings across 14 countries today (January 14). YouGov’s proprietary BrandIndex tool assesses the daily brand health of more than 500 brands across 25 sectors in Saudi Arabia.

BrandIndex rankings are based on a brand’s BrandIndex Buzz score, which measures the positive or negative trajectory of a brand by asking respondents specific questions related to brand awareness and perception.

Maintaining its first place position, Samsung achieved a Buzz score of 62.2 points in Saudi Arabia. In second place, Google gained 25.7 points this year to reach a Buzz score of 61.9 points. Chocolate brand Galaxy ranked third this year, with a score of 53.9 and dairy company Almarai jumped three places to reach fourth with a Buzz score of 52.6.

Visa witnessed the biggest improvement in Buzz score, witnessing increase of 30.7 points to reach a score of 37.6. MasterCard, who launched its Priceless Arabia campaign this year, witnessed an increase of 26.7 points.

Carbonated beverage brands 7Up, Pepsi and Mirinda also made it to the Top BrandIndex Buzz Improvers list, jumping 12.7, 9.2 and 7.7 points respectively.

These brands were rated using YouGov BrandIndex’s Buzz score, which asks respondents, "If you've heard anything about the brand in the last two weeks, through advertising, news or word of mouth, was it positive or negative?"

YouGov BrandIndex is the first and only service that measures the fundamentals of brand health every day.

BrandIndex is a daily measure of brand perception among the public, tracking over 550 brands across multiple sectors simultaneously. BrandIndex interviews over 25,000 – 30,000 people per year in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, which not only gives an instantaneous picture of a brand’s health, but also that of the competitors and whole sector. – TradeArabia News Service