The top performing brands in the 2018 Sunday Times Generation Next youth survey were announced at the highly anticipated Sunday Times Generation Next Awards that took place in Sandton. 

Nike was once again awarded as the Uber Cool Overall Brand, followed by Samsung and adidas in 2nd and 3rd place respectively. Nike was also awarded as the Coolest Shoe/Footwear Brand, and the one with the Coolest Brand Slogan, Just Do It!

Now in its 14th year, the  Sunday Times Generation Next Youth survey, in association with leading youth market specialists, HDI Youth Marketeers polls more than twelve thousand youths from around the country, across more than seventy categories, and is considered the leading barometer of what SA’s kids, teens and young adults find on-trend and aspirational. 

Reardon Sanderson, GM Group Sales & Marketing at Tiso Blackstar says: “The Sunday Times Generation Next survey is a great insight into how the youth perceive and attribute value to brands in a highly competitive market.  It’s always important for brands to understand how a very switched-on youth segment makes decisions, as they’ll soon be the income-earners of tomorrow.  The results can have a strong impact on the tactics and longer term marketing strategies that brands put in place, and the Sunday Times recognises the very important role this survey plays for advertisers.”

Bongani Chinkanda, CEO of HDI Youth Marketeers, says the internet and social media are having increasing impact on SA’s youth, and the choices they make as consumers. "In the past 60 seconds, 500 hours of video content have been uploaded on Youtube, 3.3 million Facebook posts have gone up , 29 million Whatsapp messages have been exchanged, and a total of 3.8 million Google searches made. This shows how digital has taken over in the past 14 years. With Google and Facebook being the biggest digital media platforms in the world, it shows the importance of brands going digital and being intentional when reaching youth"

Nike, Samsung, adidas, Trace Urban, Top Gear, Whatsapp and Nivea were the only brands to achieve Coolest brand status in two or more categories of the survey.

Fifteen of the 74 categories surveyed saw new category winners from those in 2017.  However, brands that continued to land favourably with SA’s youth, and hold on to the Coolest top spot in their respective categories included:  Nike, FNB, Samsung, Mr Price, SAA, Colgate, Nestlé Hot Chocolate, Protea Hotels, TotalSPORTS, DStv, Identity, Vodacom, KOO, Mercedes Benz, CNA, Engen, Sun City, Trace Urban, Cartoon Network, Pick ‘n Pay, MetroFM, Top Gear, McDonald’s, Spur, Red Bull Energy Drink, Doritos, Coca-Cola, Mugg & Bean, Always, Avon, WhatsApp,  Tom & Jerry, FIFA, Magnum, Daily Sun, Dark & Lovely, University of Cape Town (UCT), Bic, Playgirl, Whiskers, Whatsapp, Dove, Nutella, Nivea, Rosebank College and Parmalat. The Sunday Times continues its run as the Coolest Weekly Newspaper.

Only one new category was included in the 2018 survey, where Toys R Us came out as the Coolest Toy Store.

In the celebrity and entertainment categories, Kaizer Chiefs and Bafana Bafana soccer-star Siphiwe Tshabalala came out as the Coolest Local Sportsperson.  Both MetroFM  and the SABC drama, Uzalo, were again named as the Coolest Radio Station and Coolest TV Soap respectively.  Black Coffee continued his reign as Coolest Local DJ, and Trevor Noah remains Coolest Local Male Celebrity and the Coolest Local TV Star.  Babes Wodumo was named Coolest Local Female Celebrity for the second year running.

Nasty C, who also performed at the Awards, was named Coolest Local Music Star.

The polling results and analyses across all categories will be published in a supplement accompanying the Sunday Times edition of 17 June 2018.

Headline partners for the 2018 Sunday Times Generation Next include Nedbank, Brand South Africa, and Kotex