Despite the attention given to the general elections and new cabinet last year, some local brands were able to break through the mental ceiling and retain the interest of Nigerians. Their reward was to keep trending.
Google has captured a list of the top ten trending Nigerian brands of 2015, highlighting the brands that had the highest spike in traffic over a sustained period in 2015 as compared to 2014. The list begins with a huge surprise.
Flying high on the line-up is the new kid on the runways of Nigeria’s airports, Air Peace. Led by Allen Onyema, the airline made its debut in 2013. Perhaps speculation about a possible connection between Air Peace and the wife of the former President of Nigeria, Dame Patience Jonathan set the search engines revving and kept the airline on the minds of controversy-loving Nigerians.
Composite online and offline retail chain, Yudala, sits pretty in second place. Following its well-publicised launch in August, Yudala made waves in the marketplace with its promise to deliver purchases via drones. Reports of its first successful drone-powered drop off in November kept Nigerians talking for the rest of the year.
Free online classifieds site, jiji.com, takes the next spot, ahead of online retail site, Payporte, online classifieds site, efritin.com and online shopping site Kaymu. Remarkably, global market leader in the online classifieds space, OLX, did not make the list of top trending brands in Nigeria. neither did Konga.
Dubai-based mobile device start-up, Injoo made the list at number 8, riding on the success of its ‘reasonably priced’ smartphones and tablets. Injoo leads regional and International carrier Medview Airline and local telecomms operator, Smile Communications in the trend stakes.