Mxit Brand Index: 31 January 2014

Top 40 South African brands on Mxit on 31 January 2014

Analysis: Shoprite and Red Bull storm up the rankings while MTN and Telkom Mobile heat up the competition for the top mobile brand. Election year makes its presence felt on Mxit with IEC South Africa's phenomenal 109% growth in January alone.

January was anything but a slow month for South African brands on Mxit, with four new entries in the top 40 underpinned by massive subscriber growth. Shoprite jumped 10 places, from 36th to 26th with 87,849 new subscribers to their app. Red Bull's new campaigns delivered big results, with 39,288 new subscribers they moved up six places, to 18th position. IEC South Africa, Beacon, MTN and LegalWise all debut on the January Brand Index.

MTN's recently published app has shown significant growth over December and January placing the brand in 38th position after just six weeks. The app, published in mid November 2013, has shown a spectacular 234% increase in subscriber numbers since the beginning of December 2013, and a 23% growth between in January. Telkom Mobile retains their top mobile brand ranking in 9th position, while Vodacom and Cell C's subscriber numbers declined slightly in January, making the battle for the top mobile brand on Mxit's monthly Brand Index a particularly interesting one to watch.

The second big story this month is IEC South Africa, who premiered on the Index in 28th position, off the back of a cross-cutting advertising campaign. The organisation showed exceptional growth of 109% in January as they added 141,761 new subscribers to their Mxit app. The ANC Western Cape remains the biggest political party app, with 322,915 subscribers. The Democratic Alliance also features on the Index, in 34th position. Mxit offers a strategic opportunity for political parties to speak directly to their voters in this very important election year. The IEC looks set to confirm this notion with their second month of strong growth.

December's Top 40 Brands - The star performers:

Brands to watch

MTN's spectacular growth since their launch on 15 November is a sign that the brand is serious about advertising on mobile social media. Their far-reaching campaigns sustains brand awareness and engagement, from press and billboard advertising, right through to the MTN-branded app on a user's Mxit contact list.

Shoprite's assault on the rankings shows that they are also another major brand serious about engagement with their customers in the mobile social media sphere. They grabbed top retail brand honours in 26th place and it is only a matter of time before they close in on top retail brand, SPAR, currently in 10th position.

As predicted in January, Nando's and LegalWise were set to shine: Nando's added 49,926 new subscribers in January, bringing them closer to a Brand Index listing, whilst LegalWise debuted in 39th position following their successful advertising campaign. Watch this space!

What is the Mxit Brand Index?

The Mxit Brand Index is a measure of consumer affinity expressed by the number of Mxit users that subscribe to each brand on the social network. Mxit has a monthly active user base of 6.5-million in South Africa.

How is it compiled?

A list of all apps on Mxit is compiled, and each one is ranked according to the total number of subscribers. By subscribing to an app, a Mxit user has chosen to add the app to his contact list, can access content published by the app, and has opted in to receive direct messages from the app.

Listing rules

• A brand has to exist as a commercial consumer brand outside of the Mxit ecosystem in order to be in consideration for the Index.
• Apps have to be in a published state on the date that the list is compiled. No beta, unpublished or suspended apps are considered.
• Where a brand has sub-brands that appear on the list, only the highest listing will be included in the index.
• The Index lists brands. If the name of the app is different to the name of the brand, the name of the brand will be used for the index (e.g. app= love cricket, but will appear as Cricket SA on the Index.)
• No NGOs or NPOs are included.

Additional criteria

When evaluating the top brands in the Mxit ecosystem of apps, games, content and communities, we apply the following criteria:
• Working app with updated information
• No services-based apps and games such as MxPx, Judgeme, Battletrivia, Wikipedia, Hello Doctor, etc.
• No individual celebrities such as Romy Titus, Riaad Moosa, etc.
• No chat rooms