The two most loved UK brands are sports-fashion brands Nike and Adidas, according to a report from social analytics firm NetBase called Brand Passion Report 2018: Top Loved United Kingdom Brands.

The report reveals fashion, beauty and technology are the top three industries currently evoking the most passion amongst British consumers. Paige Leidig, chief marketing officer at NetBase, says this reflects the growing “athleisure” trend and popularity of the wellbeing movement. Leidig adds: This is In contradiction to the several confectionary brands ranked among the most loved brands with Cadbury’s Chocolate ranking 23rd; Nutella 24th  and Haribo 35th.”

With MAC Cosmetics and Sephora ranking in the top ten brands, Leidig says: “This points to the growing obsession around our image – perhaps a reflection of the rising selfie culture. Whilst they ranked next to each other within beauty, Sephora recorded 74% brand love in comparison to MAC with only 20%.”

The Top 10 Most Loved UK Brands

Top 2 brands from each industry

Key findings

• Nike’s overall brand love can be attributed in part to its recent commercial presenting its first sports hijab for female Muslim athletes stimulating ample social media engagement for Nike. 
• Image and video posts benefit brand love and engagement, also lifting paid-to-earned media ratios for tech brands. Apple’s image spend creates a significant lift in engagement in the analysis.
• Sephora captured an overwhelming 74% of brand love, compared to MAC Cosmetics, in second place with 20% brand love.
• Among the top six automotive brands, Ford enjoys the highest correlation of brand love to image posts and engagements.
• Zara has relatively few negative brand love mentions compared to the other fashion brands, a mere 608 negative mentions in a total of 1,137,736 mentions. 
• According to nutrition experts, given the epidemic proportions highly-processed foods have reached in the UK, brand love for confections and snacks runs high, with established brands like Cadbury Chocolates (23), Nutella (24), McVities (31) and Haribo (35).

Luxury brands are always popular it seems, despite the money they cost. As Leidig says: “It’s surprising to see the popularity of luxury brands, such as Gucci and Louis Vuitton, within the top ten most popular brands as it suggests many consumers aspire to brands regardless of their affordability.”

However, luxury brands are still not valued as highly as sports-fashion labels. Obesity levels may be increasing in this country, but it seems that UK consumers still like to dress as athletes, even if this means getting plus-sizes thanks, in part, to their other love, which is processed foods...

Methodololgy

NetBase’s Brand Passion Report 2018 finds the most popular brands in the UK right now, through analysing conversation on social media surrounding brands within the six key industries: Technology, Automotive, Beauty, Fashion, Food & Beverage, and Luxury. The annual report includes over 64 million posts of earned mentions and is based on brand conversations across the social web inclusive of Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr and millions of other sources during the one-year period from January 2017 through December 2017. More details about the Love List are revealed at NetBase LIVE in London, on May 9-10 May 2018 (visit https://www.netbaselive.com/london for further information).