Emirates Airline and Almarai both feature on a list of the 10 most recognisable brands among UAE consumers in the first half of the year.
YouGov questioned 2,000 "nationally representative" respondents daily about whether they had heard anything about a brand in the last two weeks, positive or negative.
The score awarded reflects brand sentiment and the direction of the awareness - in other words, the higher the ranking, the more positive the perception.
Google claimed the top spot, with an overall score of 61.4 points, leaping from sixth to first place from a previous index. Samsung, a new entrant, was second with 60.2 points, partly helped by the fact that they launched "some of their most competitive smart phones in the last year", according to YouGov.
Emirates Airline was third with 59.1 points, dropping three positions, while Almarai followed in fourth place with 49.1 points. They were the only two regional-based brands to make the list.
Dettol, Galaxy, Dove, Nestlé, Carrefour - which has locations across the UAE through a franchise deal with Majid Al Futtaim - and Apple's iPhone made up the rest of the top 10 brands.
There were no surprises in the rankings, according to an executive with Ogilvy Noor, an Islamic branding agency.
"You can see it is highly skewed towards technological brands, which is not surprising if you look at the mobile penetration in this region," said Vaquas Alvi, the company's regional director.
From an advertising point of view, Samsung is investing heavily in the market, as is Emirates Airline.
"Emirates is a local [and] global brand and people are very proud of those kind of brands. Almarai has spent a lot [on] rebranding," said Mr Alvi.
"Dettol has been seen as a brand which has now reached a lot of homes because of all the hygiene issues that were in the market and they have done a massive school programme in the region just to get themselves into the homes of the people as well. So is the case with Dove and Nestlé and Carrefour."
Two local brands and one regional brand made the most improved list - Emirates NBD in fifth place with 11.4 points, Nakheel in sixth with 11 points and Almarai in ninth place with 10.4 points.
