Nike, Merc, UCT tops among youth of SA

COMEDIAN Trevor Noah, Proteas cricket captain AB de Villiers and rapper Cassper Nyovest are the coolest stars among young South Africans.

The trio came out tops in the Sunday Times Generation Next Survey Awards, which polled 5 400 South Africans aged eight to 23. Noah was voted the top male TV star, and De Villiers was the coolest sportsman. Nyovest was the top music star and Minnie Dlamini the highestranked local female TV star. The top international celebrities were soccer stars Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.

When it comes to consumer brands, the one that gets them going is Nike. The sportswear giant was voted coolest brand overall, and won in the top clothing, footwear and brand slogan categories.

Mercedes-Benz was named coolest car brand. Samsung proved to be the coolest cellphone brand, KFC the top fastfood outlet and Cape Town the best holiday destination. The most popular bank was FNB, while Vodacom was the top cellular provider. The University of Cape Town was the favourite university.

The annual survey was done by HDI Youth Marketeers and sponsored by Waltons.

Jason Levin, MD of HDI Youth Marketeers, said this year’s winners showed that young South Africans were not fickle. Many brands had retained their top spots, although some newcomers had made an impact.

Trevor Ormerod, general manager of group sales at Times Media, said the awards had a massive response each year.

“This highlights the relevance that these insights hold for both marketers and brands.”

Other winners included Xbox (hi-tech gadget), Nestlé Milo (breakfast cereal), WhatsApp (social media platform), SAA (airline), Sunday Times (weekly newspaper), Protea Hotels (hotels), Pick n Pay (grocery store), Spur (eat-out place) Coca-Cola (cold drink) and Monster Energy (energy drink). — Staff Reporter

See all winners and rankings in the Sunday Times Generation Next supplement in this week’s edition of the Sunday Times