The Coolest Brands in Europe, According to Gen Z and Millennials

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Kaley Mullin | Youth and Trends Insights Lead, YouTube

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01 | How you say cool in German? Nike.

As a brand, attaining coolness may seem like a difficult feat. It’s a quality that everyone wants, but don’t know exactly how to get because it’s definition changes with consumer preferences. But YPulse data shows brands can take practical steps to enhance their perceived coolness among young people—or regain it if it has been lost. A crucial aspect is first listening to young people and knowing which brands are the coolest in their eyes. This is where YPulse’s Brand Tracker comes into play: we ask young people themselves to rate brands’ coolness to understand what lies behind this ambiguous attribute.

According to YPulse’s Decoding Brand Affinity report , European 13-39-year-olds say a brand is cool when it’s “unique and stands out from the competition,” “keeps up to date with current trends,” and is “popular” (another title every brand wants to win). In short, being cool is about knowing what your brand is best at, and not being afraid to innovate within that niche. Brands like Nike and Apple excel at knowing their USP and are always a step ahead of their competitors—which explains just one reason why they’ve amassed such a fandom among young consumers.

Among the 20 youth-focused diagnostics that we use to score brands’ affinity among young consumers in YPulse’s Brand Tracker is the “Cool” metric. While we’ve recently compiled a?list of the 50 coolest brands into a full report—based on interviews with over 13,000 13-39-year-olds across Western Europe over the last year*—here’s a quick look at the top five brands young Europeans see as cool, and a few reasons why:

Nike is the coolest brand according to young Europeans

European 13-39-year-olds are all in agreement as to which brand is the absolute coolest: Nike. The brand consistently ranks at or near the top for most of YPulse’s 20 affinity diagnostics, and the combined overall YScore+. Nike is such a cool brand in their eyes in part because streetwear is young Europeans’ favorite fashion style . But it’s mostly Nike’s ability to set up new trends that makes the brand unique for European Gen Z, from metaverse activations to collaborations with luxury brands.

Young Brits see Doritos as a cool brand

Doritos is perhaps unexpectedly high on the list of young British consumers’ top cool brands, in fifth place competing with brands from all industries. But looking more closely at what the brand has been up to lately shows Doritos has redoubled efforts to showcase its uniqueness (a core factor of cool). From creative foodie content on social media to releasing a nacho cheesy alcoholic beverage , quirky marketing has helped Doritos remind young British consumers that nothing rivals Doritos’ taste. It’s no coincidence YPulse is tracking the popularity of weird marketing —it’s helping brands show “cool” by being trend trailblazers. Doritos also got attention from British 13-39-year-olds thanks to its recent use of AI in the gaming world : a campaign aimed at silencing the sounds of crunching in microphones lets gamers snack on their favorite crisps unnoticed, an innovation players have likely wished to have for years.

The NBA is a cool brand in Spain

It might come as a surprise for some to see that the NBA is among the coolest brands according to Spanish 13-39-year-olds. But young Spanish consumers are avid fans of basketball, and the NBA gives a cool factor other leagues don’t. Data from YPulse’s WE Sports and Athletics report shows nearly two in five are following the NBA; +13pts more than their other European peers—checking the popular box. The NBA is also working hard on gaining new young fans in Western Europe , from organizing regular season games to expanding its physical stores. Engaging IRL in the region is a unique offering for an American league, the exclusivity of which is super cool.

Calvin Klein is a top cool brand for young Germans

When we ask European 13-24-year-olds what makes a brand cool, their top answer is that it’s “popular and wanted by many people my age.” Despite being over 50 years old now, Calvin Klein manages to be a popular brand for the younger gen, especially in Germany. Its iconic white stripe is an object of desire for many young people; it’s a style symbol that simultaneously makes the wearer cool, and the brand cool for being worn. Its latest ad campaign featuring actor Jeremy Allen White has gone viral on socials among young people, reinforcing that Calvin Klein has a knack for keeping up with entertainment and celeb trends that Gen Z is fueling.

?*This ranking is determined by the average “Cool” score in YPulse’s Brand Tracker—one of 20 youth-centric metrics tracked with the YPulse youth intelligence platform. YPulse conducts thousands of weekly interviews with 13-39-year-olds across North America and Western Europe. This dataset was generated from interviews with 13,839 13-39-year-olds in the U.K., France, Germany, Spain, and Italy, conducted between Dec 5, 2022 and Dec 3, 2023. Rankings are subject to change as brands are added and removed.

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