Coolest brands in SA - BMW, Coca-Cola, Nike, Samsung, Apple

This year, BMW tops the list of the coolest brands in South Africa, as selected by the country's youth in the Sunday Times Generation Next Awards, announced late last week. The others in the top 5 are Coca-Cola, Nike, Samsung and Apple.

Components for the study

There are two components to the study, which was conducted by HDI Youth Marketeers, across the seven regions of the Eastern Cape, Free State, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, North West and Western Cape. One is Brand Preference and the other Lifestyle & Consumer Behaviour.

• Brand Preference - the opinions of 5,675 young urban South Africans (aged 8-23) were polled to establish which brands are the Coolest of the cool in 2014 across 72 different categories• Lifestyle & Consumer Behaviour - this component revealed key trends and consumer behaviour patterns amongst young South Africans (Questions included: What do you think of recycling?; What inspires you to exercise?; How do you express yourself most?). The results provide HDI with rich insight to help understand what makes young urbanites tick.

Trevor Ormerod, GM: Group Sales for Times Media says, "This year we've reached a milestone, marking a decade of the annual awards, which have established a strong presence amongst the youth, marketers and brands in South Africa today."

"The survey has grown so much in a decade, from an initial sample of less than 2,000 to over 5,500 now and, while changes are always fun to see, it's also great to see some winners like Coca-Cola, Vodacom and Doritos who have scooped gold for a decade," says Jason Levin, MD of HDI.

Download a list of the winners here (pdf)

View the 2014 HDI Survey Methodology (pdf)

For more information go to www.TMAdRoom.co.za.