The results from the fifth wave of our Brand Reaction Index (BRI) are now live!

Find out how your brand has emotionally connected with Irish consumers over the last 12 months as we showcase the winners & losers.

Download the full report to find out more!

Click here for the BRI Ireland Infographic summary

Following three consecutive years of sitting in second place, Tayto overtakes previous leader Cadbury, to become Ireland’s most emotionally connected brand in 2025. While a modest uplift for The Credit Union sees them jump five places to #3.

Supermarket brands continue to secure a strong emotional connection with consumers, garnering some of the highest category average scores amongst the 21 categories tested this year.

Dunnes emerges as Ireland’s most connected supermarket brand, rising to #4, while Aldi and Lidl now sit at #8 and #10 respectively.

The Wild Atlantic Way and Brennans Bread protect their spots within the coveted top 10, sitting in #5 and #6. While An Post and Netflix re-gain positions in the ranks, climbing to #7 and #9 and rounding out the list.

So, what do these brands have in common? One glance at the top 10 tells you that these brands all play on at least one of the following elements.

Nostalgia & Heritage: Brands that tap into deep-rooted cultural memories and national identity, playing on distinctive brand assets like Brennans ‘Todays Bread Today’ and Cadbury ‘A Glass & A Half in Everyone’.

Trust & Community: Brands people rely on, embedded in daily life and local value. These brands stand for people and are customer centric in approach.

Value & Accessibility: Brands that support daily life by offering quality and choice. In a cost-conscious consumer landscape, brands that prioritise value drive emotional connection.

Sense of Place & Identity: Brands that are rooted in Irish culture, landscape, and national character. They bring unique Irish experiences into their brands, whether showcasing a coastline or creating a crisp sandwich!

Comfort & Familiarity: Brands that feel like home, part of the daily or family rhythm. A sense of place, providing comfort through familiarity.

The marketing industry often assumes that consumers meticulously evaluate every brand decision they make. In reality, consumers will often gravitate towards decisions based on intuitive “system-one” mental connections, making quick, “good enough” brand choices using mental shortcuts.

Bearing this in mind, it is crucial that brands maximise their ability to be chosen using key mental shortcuts or heuristics, such as recall, recognition and what RED C’s Brand Reaction Index (BRI) measures, reaction.

1. Recall: Is the brand easily recalled in context of a choice in its category?
2. Recognition: Does a brand have strong collateral that sets it apart from competitors, thus making it easier to choose?
3. Reaction: Does a brand elicit a positive emotional connection, reinforcing it as a good choice?

Behavioural and marketing scientists such as Gerd Gigerenzer and the Ehernberg Bass Institute have conducted extensive research in this field. Their work demonstrates that brands which are both mentally and physically available, easily recognisable, and capable of eliciting positive emotional responses are significantly more likely to be chosen by consumers over brands that are not.

RED C’s BRI provides an evaluation of consumers’ implicit emotional reaction to brands to better understand this system one driver of brand choice. This year marks our fifth year measuring the emotional connection between brands and consumers, with the research identifying Ireland’s most emotionally connected brands, the evolution of brand connections over time and how brands compare against competitors within their categories.

It’s a particularly positive outcome for Ireland’s national broadcasters. RTÉ claims the accolade of most improved brand (+22 points vs ’24), recovering from last year’s decline and re-entering positive BRI territory, while TG4 also fosters greater positivity amongst consumers (+5 points vs ’24) bringing it within close reach of the top 50 brands overall.

Private hospitals also registered a more positive reaction, with several brands, with several brands recording substantial improvements in their scores. Gains made by Bon Secours (+8 points vs ’24) and Mater Private (+9 points vs ’24) see them rise significantly up the ranks and land well within the top 100 brands overall, with Blackrock Health also garnering a respectable increase (+5 points vs ’24).

Irish Rail records a 7-point increase compared to 2024, which propels them into the top 50 brands and extends their lead within the transport sector. Meanwhile, VHI and Bank of Ireland also post strong performances, with gains of +10 and +8 points respectively seeing them attain double digit scores this year.

Social media continues to be the least emotionally connected category, marked by widespread negativity and standing as the only category with an average BRI score in negative territory. Moreover, the category houses the brand with the steepest decline this year, with X seeing their score fall by 13 points compared to last year, landing them even further in the negative and at the very bottom of the overall rankings. However, despite what one might believe, social media isn’t just for the young! The results reveal the varying emotional connections between social media platforms and unique age groups, with TikTok standing out among 16-24s, Instagram proving popular among 35 – 44s and Facebook being preferred by those aged 65+

If you want to find out more about your brand and its context with competitors, get in touch with us at [email protected]