New Brand Love Story 2020 report reveals the world's most loved brands

The report comes at a pivotal time, as brands adapt to the new normal. Brand love is known to improve consumer loyalty and advocacy. As companies adapt to a post-Covid marketplace, the report reveals 11 strategies and key actionable takeaways, to help benefit any brand in the coming years.

Largest brands dominating the lists

Toy production company Lego topped the list, followed by Four Seasons Hotels, Singapore Airlines, Giant Hypermarket, and Vertex Pharmaceuticals. The results were generated from a quarter of a billion conversations around 781 brands over the last six months of 2019. Using their proprietary AI-powered sentiment analysis, and industry-first image and video analytics, Talkwalker was able to identify the signals that predict brand love - even when a brand is not directly mentioned.

“Most methods used to identify brand love include volume of mentions - leading to the largest brands dominating the lists,” says Todd Grossman, Talkwalker CEO Americas.

Given the current crisis, businesses are more exposed than ever before. We wanted to find the brands that were building real engagement, tackling the issues that matter to their communities, and making connections that go beyond the traditional consumer/company convention.

Talkwalker also highlighted the brands succeeding at regional levels. The list of well-loved brands in the Middle East & Africa region is led by Etihad Airways, Four Seasons, Benefit Cosmetics, Hyatt Hotels, TikTok, Qatar Airways, Huda Beauty, InterContinental, Careem, and HMD Global.

The rise of social media

Vanessa Naidu, general manager of Benefit South Africa considers influencer marketing an instrumental method for building brand love, saying,

The rise of social media has played a pivotal role in the evolution of the marketing landscape. Brands resonate within a consumer’s heart and mind and the same principle must be applied to influencer marketing. Influencer marketing plays an integral part in shaping consumers’ attitudes which influences purchasing intentions. And as such, it is imperative that there is a synergistical fit between a brand’s values and that of the influencer they have chosen to work with.

Meanwhile, Devasish Auddy, head of marketing at HMD Global, the home of Nokia phones – MENA highlights the importance of keeping the customer experience at the heart of the brand, “At HMD Global, we have a simple idea at the core of our operations: that mobile technology can improve the lives of everyone around the world. Our commitment to… [making modern mobile technology accessible to everyone] has resulted in an overwhelmingly positive reception to HMD Global since we came to market in 2016.”

“We want to establish this report as the benchmark for brand love over the coming years,” Talkwalker’s Grossman adds. “With expert knowledge garnered from working with some of the world’s most loved brands and marketers who are building them, we now see the opportunity for every brand to build those vital emotional connections. And this report is the foundation for enabling any company to tell their brand love story.”

For more data from Talkwalker's Brand Love Story 2020 report and the complete list of most loved brands in the world and per region, download the full report here.