Brands find love online

One way of gauging public sentiment towards a brand is to measure interaction with it on social media.

A list compiled by social analytics platform, NetBase, shows the UK’s best-loved brands according to the context within with they are discussed online.

The Top 50 Brand Lovelist looks at brand mentions over a one-year period. Brand list regular, Apple, ranked number one, while Google ranked second followed by Lego and then Tesco. It’s perhaps unsurprising that major tech and digital-first brands, Apple and Google, are at the forefront of online discussion.

Lego, who’s core product is a physical children’s toy, would perhaps be more of a surprise if it wasn’t for the admirable world that Lego has built around its brand. Its film and other content-led initiatives and partnerships have made it one of the world’s most loved brands. Consumer goods companies represented 28% of most loved brands in the UK, and included the likes of Adidas, Chanel and Burberry.

Tesco is perhaps the most surprising high entry considering the multiple crises that the company has ridden over the past few years. Perhaps its high ranking in the Brand Lovelist is a sign that the company’s rich and long-established brand heritage is seeing it through this difficult time.

Paige Leidig, chief marketing officer at NetBase says, “While it’s not altogether surprising that Apple came out on top, if we look beneath the surface it tells us that here is a company that has created an enviable passion among its consumers. Alternatively, look at Tesco, why is it the only food and beverage brand on the list, where are the likes of Lidl and Sainsbury? The answer is because it has worked hard to build a strong relationship with its customers and they want to express their love for it.”

Apple is also the best-loved brand in Europe ‘love’, ‘best’, ‘great’, ‘perfect’ and ‘awesome’ were the top five words used in association with the brand name. Apple also received over 400,000 more mentions than Google, and seven times as many as Lego.

English and French language posts were analysed across Europe, from April 2015 to March 2016.