At a glamorous event held last night at Urban Tree in Kramerville, 
– media personality, musician and SA Idols judge – announced the winners of the 14th Sunday Times Top Brands Awards. The Sunday Times Top Brands Survey, commissioned by Avusa Media and conducted by TNS, interviewed 400 senior business people, as well as 3500 consumers over the age of 18. The results reveal a general trend that, in many instances, category usage has increased significantly from last year, with consumer optimism emerging from the recessionary mindset.
Neil Higgs, senior adviser and head of innovation at TNS South Africa, said that the company’s consumer confidence measure shows that South Africans were relatively bullish regarding the first quarter of the year, “with consumers willing to spend more on luxury goods such as cars, sports clothing and cosmetics.”
The survey evaluated overall brand familiarity, user experience, non-user perception, and actual brand presence in the South African market. The combined results of these aspects delivered the winning brands in 38 consumer categories, and 13 business sector categories.
Once again, Koo walked away with the Grand Prix Overall Favourite Brand Award. Familiar stalwart Coca-Cola placed second while also winning three prestigious Top Brands Grand Prix awards as the brand that has done the most to uplift the community, the brand rated most environmentally friendly, and the brand considered most-desirable to work for (a new Grand Prix category in 2012).
Based on the runaway success of the ‘Steve’ campaign, the Top Brands Marketing Personality of the Year accolade went to Bernice Samuels, chief marketing officer for FNB. The influence of this campaign also undoubtedly pushed FNB up into second spot in the retail banking category, with currently beleaguered Absa still maintaining the lead.
Consumer results showed some differences from that of the business leaders, with SAA claiming the award in the consumer sector, and British Airways taking top place in the business sector for airlines. Similarly, Nokia is the leading cell-phone choice for consumers, while the business sector is more aligned with Apple. Vodacom is South Africa’s top rated telecommunications service provider in the eyes of both the business sector and consumers.
Other category winners include: Rama, Bakers, Pyotts, Panado, Clover Krush, Red Square, Johnnie Walker, Hansa, Hunters, Ricoffy, Cadbury, Tastic, Shoprite, KFC, Avon, Vaseline, Sunlight, Handy Andy, Samsung, Defy, Toyota, Engen, Old Mutual, Hollard, Avis, Tsogo Sun, Momentum, Investec, DHL, Talk Radio 702, Nike, OUTsurance and Spur.
The Sunday Times remains the top weekly newspaper.
The Robyn Putter Top Brand Agency of the Year Award, which recognises the creative agencies behind the big brands, is calculated on a points system for agencies with clients that achieved first, second and third place in the Top Brands Survey. This year the award went to Draftfcb.
“With every survey commissioned, the Sunday Times continues to deliver real insights into the consumer market in South Africa, and it’s a privilege to be able to provide our clients and the public with these interesting findings,” concludes Trevor Ormerod, General Manager of Advertising Sales, Avusa Media.
The results of the 2012 Sunday Times Top Brands Survey will be published as a supplement in the 5th August 2012 edition of the Sunday Times.
Please view the www.pushprint.co.za website for further information and results, follow the conversation on Twitter @ST_TopBrands #TopBrands2012, and view the event image gallery on our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/PushPrint/259309784173587
Herewith follows the list of results in each category, as well as relevant commentary from TNS.
The 2012 Sunday Times Top Brands Survey Results (* awarded on the evening)
| Consumer | |||
| Domestic Airline * | |||
| 1 | South African Airways | ||
| 2 | British Airways | ||
| 3 | Mango | ||
| Car * | (significant increase in category usage) • Positions were shuffled in this growing category with Toyota making a great leap into first position. Volkswagen pushed Mercedes out of second position with its overall improvements and even though BMW improved its scores, it was outperformed by its competitors and fell from first to third place. |
||
| 1 | Toyota | ||
| 2 | Volkswagen | ||
| 3 | BMW | ||
| Petrol Station * | (significant increase in category usage) | ||
| 1 | Engen | ||
| 2 | BP | ||
| 3 | Shell | ||
| Convenience and Grocery Store * | • Shoprite is once again in first place with Pick n Pay stable in second place. Woolworths’ score has declined, which has allowed Spar to move into its place in third. | ||
| 1 | Shoprite | ||
| 2 | Pick ‘n Pay (Supermarket/ Hypermarket/ Family Store) | ||
| 3 | Spar/KwikSpar/Super Spar | ||
| Fast Food * | (significant increase in category usage) | ||
| 1 | KFC | ||
| 2 | Nando’s | ||
| 3 | McDonald’s / McCafe | ||
| Chocolate * | |||
| 1 | Cadbury slabs | ||
| 2 | Lunch Bar | ||
| 3 | Ferrero Rocher | ||
| Sweet Biscuits (new category) * | |||
| 1 | Bakers Tennis Biscuits | ||
| 2 | Bakers Eat-Sum-Mor | ||
| 3 | Bakers Romany Creams | ||
| Savoury Biscuits (new category) | |||
| 1 | Salticrax | ||
| 2 | Pro Vita | ||
| 3 | Pyott’s Mini Cheddars | ||
| Essential Food * | (significant increase in category usage) | ||
| 1 | Tastic | ||
| 2 | Albany | ||
| 3 | White Star | ||
| Tinned Food * | (significant increase in category usage) | ||
| 1 | Koo | ||
| 2 | Lucky Star | ||
| 3 | All Gold | ||
| Fat Spreads (new category) | |||
| 1 | Rama | ||
| 2 | Stork | ||
| 3 | Flora | ||
| Household Cleaning * | (significant increase in category usage) | ||
| 1 | Handy Andy | ||
| 2 | Sunlight | ||
| 3 | JIK | ||
| Laundry Care * | (significant increase in category usage) | ||
| 1 | Sunlight | ||
| 2 | Sta-Soft | ||
| 3 | Omo | ||
| Personal Care * | |||
| 1 | Vaseline | ||
| 2 | Protex | ||
| 3 | Ponds | ||
| Headache Tablets | |||
| 1 | Panado | ||
| 2 | Grand-Pa | ||
| 3 | Disprin | ||
| Beauty and Cosmetics * | (significant increase in category usage) • The cosmetics category grew in 2012 with Avon capturing the crown from Estee Lauder, driven by improved user perceptions. Yardley upheld its position in second place and Revlon’s improved user ratings pushed it up into third place. |
||
| 1 | Avon | ||
| 2 | Yardley | ||
| 3 | Revlon | ||
| Sports Clothing Brand * | (significant increase in category usage) | ||
| 1 | Nike | ||
| 2 | Adidas | ||
| 3 | Puma | ||
| Hot Beverage * | • Ricoffy is still number one and Joko maintains third place in the hot beverages category. The Five Roses score has improved considerably and has thus swapped places with Freshpak, moving from fourth to second place. | ||
| 1 | Ricoffy | ||
| 2 | Five Roses | ||
| 3 | Joko | ||
| Fruit-based Drink * | |||
| 1 | Clover Krush | ||
| 2 | Tropika | ||
| 3 | Liqui-Fruit | ||
| Soft Drink * | • Coca-Cola still dominates in first place by far and improved its score from last year. Fanta and Sprite remain in second and third place respectively; however, Sprite is narrowing its gap with Fanta | ||
| 1 | Coca-Cola | ||
| 2 | Fanta | ||
| 3 | Sprite | ||
| Beer * | |||
| 1 | Hansa | ||
| 2 | Heineken | ||
| 3 | Castle Lite | ||
| Alcoholic Spirit * | • Johnnie Walker has moved into first place. Amarula made a great leap from tenth to second position facilitated by having the highest usage of all the brands tested in the category. Jack Daniels went from sixth to third place. | ||
| 1 | Johnnie Walker | ||
| 2 | Amarula | ||
| 3 | Jack Daniel’s | ||
| Cider | (significant increase in category usage) | ||
| 1 | Hunter’s Dry/Gold/ Extreme | ||
| 2 | Savanna Dry/Light | ||
| 3 | Redd’s Dry/Original | ||
| Alcoholic Cooler | • Red Square remains on top in this category through its increase in usership as well as improved user and non-user ratings. Second and third place have new recipients with Brutal Fruit jumping up from fifth to second, and Smirnoff moving up from fourth to third place because of the large declines of Hooch Fox and Bacardi Breezer | ||
| 1 | Red Square | ||
| 2 | Brutal Fruit | ||
| 3 | Smirnoff Spin/Twist/ Storm | ||
| Retail Bank * | (significant increase in category usage) • Absa holds its position in first place in a growing category, while FNB knocked Standard Bank out of second to third place due to its greater improvement in overall ratings facilitated by their successful ‘Steve’ advertising campaign. |
||
| 1 | Absa | ||
| 2 | FNB | ||
| 3 | Standard Bank | ||
| Short-term Insurance | (significant increase in category usage) • The top three positions have changed since last year with only OUTsurance remaining and it has been pushed out of first to second place. Hollard has jumped from fifth to first place. Sanlam moved into the top three, taking third place. |
||
| 1 | Hollard | ||
| 2 | OUTsurance | ||
| 3 | Sanlam | ||
| Long-term Insurance | (significant increase in category usage). | ||
| 1 | Old Mutual | ||
| 2 | Sanlam | ||
| 3 | AVBOB | ||
| Electronic Goods * | (significant increase in category usage) | ||
| 1 | Samsung | ||
| 2 | LG | ||
| 3 | Sony | ||
| Cellphone * | (significant increase in category usage) | ||
| 1 | Nokia | ||
| 2 | Blackberry | ||
| 3 | Samsung | ||
| Telecoms Service Provider * | (significant increase in category usage) • MTN and Vodacom have swapped positions from last year where Vodacom has moved up into first place. Cell C is still in third position. 8ta makes an appearance for the first time. |
||
| 1 | Vodacom | ||
| 2 | MTN | ||
| 3 | Cell C | ||
| Large Kitchen Appliance | (significant increase in category usage) | ||
| 1 | Defy | ||
| 2 | LG | ||
| 3 | Samsung | ||
| Daily Newspaper | |||
| 1 | Daily Sun | ||
| 2 | Sowetan | ||
| 3 | The Star | ||
| Weekly Newspaper | (significant increase in category usage) • The Sunday Times improved its lead in this category, while the City Press fell from second to third place |
||
| 1 | Sunday Times | ||
| 2 | Sunday Sun | ||
| 3 | City Press | ||
| Family Sit-down Restaurant | • This category records significant growth since 2011. Both Spur and Wimpy maintain in first and second place respectively with both brands recording an increase in usership. Ocean Basket has taken over News Cafe’s third place position. | ||
| 1 | Spur | ||
| 2 | Wimpy | ||
| 3 | Ocean Basket | ||
| Business | |||
| Cellphone * | |||
| 1 | Apple iPhone | ||
| 2 | BlackBerry | ||
| 3 | Nokia | ||
| Telecoms Service Provider * | |||
| 1 | Vodacom | ||
| 2 | MTN | ||
| 3 | Nashua Mobile | ||
| Computer Tablet/e-reader (new category) * | |||
| 1 | iPad | ||
| 2 | Samsung Galaxy Tab | ||
| Domestic Airline * | |||
| 1 | British Airways | ||
| 2 | Kulula.com | ||
| 3 | South African Airways | ||
| Car Hire * | |||
| 1 | Avis | ||
| 2 | Europcar | ||
| 3 | Budget | ||
| Local Hotel Group * | (significant increase in category usage) • Both Southern Sun, now known as Tsogo Sun, and City Lodge have advanced two places to take first and second place. On the other hand Protea Hotels and Protea Hotel Fire and Ice have dropped into third place. |
||
| 1 | Tsogo Sun | ||
| 2 | City Lodge | ||
| 3 | Protea Hotels and Protea Hotel Fire & Ice | ||
| Business Bank * | |||
| 1 | Investec | ||
| 2 | FNB | ||
| 3 | Standard Bank | ||
| Long-term Insurance * | • Momentum has moved up from third position to take the place of Discovery Life as the category winner owing to improved user ratings. Sanlam has climbed up four places to second position and Old Mutual has slipped down from second to third place. | ||
| 1 | Momentum Life (Incl. Metropolitan) | ||
| 2 | Sanlam | ||
| 3 | Old Mutual | ||
| Short-term Insurance * | |||
| 1 | OUTsurance | ||
| 2 | Santam | ||
| 3 | Mutual and Federal | ||
| Electronic Business Media | |||
| 1 | 702 | ||
| 2 | 56.7 Cape Talk | ||
| 3 | SAFM | ||
| Business Print Media (Magazine) | |||
| 1 | Financial Mail | ||
| 2 | Time | ||
| 3 | The Economist | ||
| Business Print Media (Newspaper) | |||
| 1 | Business Day | ||
| 2 | Sunday Times – Business Times | ||
| 3 | Mail & Guardian – Business | ||
| Courier Company | (significant decrease in category usage) | ||
| 1 | DHL | ||
| 2 | Fedex | ||
| 3 | PostNet | ||
| GRAND PRIX | |||
| Overall Favourite Brand * | |||
| 1 | Koo | ||
| 2 | Coca-Cola | ||
| 3 | Rama | ||
| Done Most To Uplift The Community * | |||
| 1 | Coca-Cola | ||
| 2 | Pick ‘n Pay | ||
| 3 | Shoprite | ||
| Done Most to Promote “Green” or “Environmentally Friendly” * | |||
| 1 | Coca-Cola | ||
| 2 | Pick ‘n Pay | ||
| 3 | Woolworths | ||
| Most Desired Company To Work For (new category) * | |||
| 1 | Coca-Cola | ||
| 2 | Eskom | ||
| 3 | Telkom | ||
| Robyn Putter Top Brand Agency of the Year * | |||
| 1 | Draftfcb | ||
| 2 | Ogilvy | ||
| 3 | Lowe Bull | ||
| Marketing Personality of the Year (by peer vote) * | |||
| 1 | Bernice Samuels – FNB | ||
| 2 | Quinton Cronje – Nandos | ||
| 3 | Enzo Scarcella – Vodacom | ||
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