2020 has been a year of both challenges and opportunities for many of the UK’s major brands and effective advertising remains key to the survival of many. But who, according to YouGov data, has experienced the highest increase in advertising awareness over the past year?
Spread across an array of different industries, the five brands that have experienced the highest increases in advertising awareness are: EE, Ring (video doorbell), Lynx, Octopus Energy and Disney+.
Disney+ registered the largest hike in advertising awareness across the year, with a massive 268% increase. This can be explained by the heavily backed launch of the streaming service in March, just in time for the first nationwide lockdown. Since then, online streaming has surged and Disney+ has effectively capitalised on this.
Disney+ represents the only “newcomer” on our list, with the other four embodying established brands who have used advertising to articulate new and existing product offerings.
EE – the UK’s No.1 mobile network – has been committed to pushing its 5G service supported by notable ally, Kevin Bacon. This push has seen an 8.6 point increase in ad awareness among Brits, contributing to an overall score of 30.5% which represents the highest overall Ad Awareness across the five brands.
Meanwhile, Lynx’s 73% increase in awareness in 2020 coincided with the 25th anniversary of the popular Lynx Africa deodorant. The celebrations included teaming up with Marmite to launch a controversial toiletry range that certainly divided opinions.
The final two brands on our list are London-based Entech pioneer Octopus Energy and Amazon’s Ring doorbells. Octopus Energy, the UK’s fastest growing private company, has clearly been working to consolidate its position within the energy sector with a steady growth in advertisement awareness over the last year, rising to 14.1%. Ring - the closest rival to EE’s overall level of awareness - has capitalised on an increasing trend of home deliveries during the pandemic by marketing a product that deters the theft of packages.
Methodology: The listed brands saw the highest year-over year increase in Ad Awareness for the period November 8 – December 8. Increases listed on chart and in text refer to the scores on December 8, 2019 and December 8, 2020 on a four-week moving average.
