It will not come as a surprise to many but Tayto has officially been ranked as the most emotionally connected brand in 2025.
According to the latest Brand Reaction Index (BRI) report by RED C the iconic crisp brand narrowly overtakes previous leader Cadbury, which has dropped to second place.
The index measures emotional connection with 176 brands in 21 categories.
Based on principles from behavioural science and psychology—including work by Gerd Gigerenzer, the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute, and Paul Ekman—the BRI also measures reactions using a facial recognition method.
Participants respond quickly to a brand by selecting from a range of emotional expressions, capturing the raw emotional resonance each brand elicits.
Joining Tayto in the top three is The Credit Union, which climbs five places thanks to a modest uplift in emotional connection.
The supermarket category continues to generate high emotional engagement, with Dunnes emerging as Ireland’s most connected supermarket brand, rising to #4. Aldi and Lidl also maintain strong positions, landing at #8 and #10 respectively.
The top 10 list showcases brands deeply rooted in Irish culture, trust, and everyday relevance: Tayto, Cadbury, The Credit Union, Dunnes, Wild Atlantic Way, Brennans, An Post, Aldi, Netflix, Lidl.
The survey also found RTÉ was the most improved brand (+22 points vs ’24), recovering from last year’s decline.
TG4 also fosters greater positivity amongst consumers (+5 points vs ’24) bringing it within close reach of the top 50 brands overall.
The latest index shows Irish Rail has climbed into the top 50 after a +7 point increase, leading the transport category.
While Bon Secours (+8 points), Mater Private (+9 points), and Blackrock Health (+5 points) fuel strong growth in emotional connection for the private hospital sector.
And VHI and Bank of Ireland each post double-digit scores following gains of +10 and +8 points, respectively.
At the other end of the spectrum, social media remains the lowest-ranked category with negative emotional scores across the board.
X, formerly Twitter, suffers the steepest decline in the study, falling -13 points to the bottom of the overall rankings.
