Netflix has beaten YouTube to the No1 spot in the UK in the Coolest Brands survey for 2023 amongst kids, but the short video platform YouTube has retained its No1 spot in the US, according to a report done by insights consultancy firm Beano Brain.

McDonald’s, Nike and new entrant Oreo make up the rest of the Top 5 according to a year-long study including in-depth observational analysis, face-to-face interviews and omnibus with 60,000 7–14 year-olds in the UK and the US.

“It may seem obvious but brands that appeal equally to boys and girls do well. Step forward the stand-out winner of 2023 – Nike. The sport and lifestyle brand has jumped from 8 to 4 in our Top Ten, effortlessly combining desirability with ubiquity,” said Helenor Gilmour, one of the two authors of the report.

In the UK, the BBC dropped twenty-eight places from 43 to 71, and Minecraft dropped 22 places to 28, having failed to maintain the buzz outside of its superfans (Minecraft does still rank at 11 for boys). Amazon (15 down from 4), Minecraft (28 down from 6) and Apple (11 down from 8) all drop out of the Top 10 for 2023, the consultancy firm said in the report.

After a year of headlines, shortages, queues and endless publicity, one of the most hyped brands of the year, the energy drink PRIME Hydration by KSI and Logan Paul only managed to rank at 82.“We spent a year talking to kids and teens aged 7–14 (Generation Alpha) about their likes and dislikes and observing the brands kids are wearing, chatting about and coveting, before testing their findings with the Beano Brain omnibus panel,” the authors of the report elaborated.

And, this year kids have brands on their brain, spontaneously talking about more brands than last year, leading the report to double in size from 50 Coolest Brands in 2022 to 100 Coolest Brands in 2023.

A successful brand captures hearts and minds which means kids instinctively love brands with salience and a clear proposition. In the uber-crowded world of Gen A this is ever more important, and few brands speak as clearly to this audience as Nike, the report said, giving an example.

It’s why Nike (Just Do It!) is cooler than adidas and why Nike is providing kids with an accessible, cool way to ‘fit in with the crowd’.

Nike has also been at the forefront of Metaverse activity, allowing kids to engage with the brand in the real and virtual worlds and for Gen A that seamless integration is just – well, cool!

Beano Brain is an insights consultancy from the UK based Beano Studios, home of the Beano comic. Born from decades of experience with kids, the company claims it now helps companies build their own connections with families using its unparalleled knowledge of Gen Alpha, Gen Z and their Millennial parents.