• by Tanya Gazdik , July 14, 2015

Amazon remains the best perceived brand for the first half of 2015, according to YouGov BrandIndex’s mid-year rankings of the 10 best perceived brands of the first half of 2015, along with the 10 brands with the biggest perception gains. The brand was also the highest ranked brand overall for 2014.

Travel booking site Trivago, ranked No. 3 in biggest gainers in perception, is a brand to keep an eye on, according to YouGov BrandIndex CEO Ted Marzilli. While a few of the biggest perception gainers reflect recovery from big crises (General Motors at No. 1, Target at No. 2 and Royal Caribbean Cruises at No. 6), Trivago is making significant headway into the brand consciousness of Americans, he says.

Cancer Treatment Centers of America is a new entry to the top 10, pushing Walgreens out of the top 10, down to No. 12. A major advertising push by the brand could be responsible, Marzilli tells Marketing Daily.

“Most of the brands at the top of the list invest heavily in advertising and marketing,” he says. “Show this list to your CFO.”

In order for advertising to improve perception, the ads need to be good, they do need to achieve a certain level of frequency, and they need to change often enough to stay fresh and keep consumers engaged, he says.

“Cancer touches almost every American, either directly or indirectly,” Marzilli says.”This is a brand that is in the business of helping people and their families battle through a very difficult time, and it receives high marks for that.”

Other significant rankings: Netflix climbs from No. 5 to No. 2. YouTube remains at No. 3. Apple moves up from No. 8 to No. 5. Subway is down from No. 2 to a tie with Apple at No. 5. Google is up from No. 10 to No. 7.

“It is interesting that in the Internet age, we still have about half of the top brands in the top 10 being more traditional,” Marzilli notes.

Those on the decline include Samsung, dropping from No. 6 to No. 8; Ford down from No. 4 to No. 9 and Lowe's down from No. 9 to No. 10.

Netflix and Amazon Instant Video are also going from strength to strength, Marzilli says.

“And those movements are emblematic of the way that media consumption is rapidly evolving to an ‘on-demand’ model,” he says. “My 6-year-old son finds it quaint that my wife and I grew up in a media world where we watched what was served to us.”

YouGov BrandIndex interviewed 1.2 million adults 18 and over for the research — 600,000 in the first half of 2015, and 600,000 in the first half of 2014 (for the gainers metrics). There is a 1.2% margin of error on the research. The firm crunched the daily perception data for over 1,400 major consumer brands in the U.S. across more than 35 industry categories.

For the rankings, YouGov BrandIndex uses its flagship Index score, its main indicator of brand health. It is an average of six sub-scores: value, quality, satisfaction, general impression, reputation, and willingness to recommend.