Top 100 digital brands report

Nokia may be undergoing one of the most troubled periods in its history, but digital marketing still appears to be one of its top priorities. The brand has overtaken McDonald’s as the most visible brand online across six of the region’s key markets.

There has been movement elsewhere, too. Sony, Samsung, Adidas and Nike maintain a strong profile, but other major advertisers have fallen out of the top 20 altogether: Heineken, Pepsi, Philips, Pizza Hut and Visa have made way for more digitally aggressive tech brands Apple, Dell and HP, as well as HSBC and L’Oréal.

In individual markets, local brands are gaining prominence like never before. In China, for instance, China Mobile replaces KFC at the top; indeed, half of the brands in the market’s top 10 are domestic. And homegrown brands are similarly strong in Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. Yet high awareness levels are no guarantee of commercial success. China Mobile, for example, does little to motivate consumers. Conversely, certain brands that do not fall within a market’s top 10 in terms of awareness, such as 100Plus in Malaysia, come top among motivating advertisers - and presumably the most trustworthy.

The most trusted sources for consumers remain friends and family, but digital media is also seen as a credible platform for independent reviewers. Dedicated websites, the most visible online platform, and search ads, are also relatively trusted, but banners, pop-ups, email, virtual world and in-game ads continue to be regarded with much more suspicion than more traditional channels.
Perhaps not surprisingly though, different markets are more receptive to digital messaging than others. While the majority of participants across the six markets admit that digital media raises their interest in a brand somewhat, the impact is most pronounced in Thailand. Singaporeans, on the other hand, remain much more sceptical.

The six pages that follow highlight these subtle differences in attitude towards digital marketing and show, where possible, the relationship between investment, visibility and conversion. In doing so, they paint a clear picture of the new digital brand landscape in Asia.

Top 20 regional digital brands

1. Nokia
2. Sony
3. Samsung
4. Canon
5. Citibank
6. Hewlett Packard (HP)
7. Nike
8. Olay
9. Toyota
10. Head & Shoulders
11. Honda
12. McDonald's
13. Coca-Cola
14. KFC
15. HSBC
16. Adidas
17. Apple
18. L'Oreal
19. Dell
20. Nestle

Access top 10 reports for:

China
Hong Kong
Taiwan
Singapore
Malaysia
Thailand

Methodology

Research company TNS interviewed a total of 3,000 consumers, aged 15 to 39, across six Asian markets: China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore,Taiwan and Thailand.

Interviews were conducted online using an access panel provided by Lightspeed, a Kantar company.

The research had four main objectives:

• To understand consumer awareness of a brand’s digital presence in each market
• To examine the use of digital media by different brands in the region
• To assess the effect a brand’s digital presence has on influencing consumer choice
• To explore levels of consumer trust towards different media channels

Accurate representation of consumers was achieved via stratified sampling with quotas on age, gender and city in line with population distribution. The brands included in the survey comprise the top spending online advertisers in each market across all media, according to Nielsen’s advertising expenditure data.

This study therefore focuses on the digital presence of the top advertisers only. Those advertisers and brands not included in the list of top spenders are by default excluded from the study.