aespa's Winter overthrows K-pop queens BLACKPINK in October Brand Reputation Rankings

Monster rookie group aespa's Winter has overthrown BLACKPINK members to take the crown for October 2021’s individual girl group member Brand Reputation Rankings. The Korean Business Research Institute released the rankings on October 17.

October’s rankings are surprising as aespa, who hasn’t even completed a year as an idol group, overthrew BLACKPINK in the ratings. Out of the top six ranks, aespa claims four seats, including the No. 1 rank.

aespa's Winter tops October 2021 Individual K-pop Girl Group Member Brand Reputation Rankings

The Research Institute releases monthly reputation rankings that show an idol’s popularity in the South Korean entertainment industry. It also lists phrases that have been searched the most by the member's names, along with a positive-negative analysis.

The Korea Business Research Institute calculates rankings based on various factors such as media interest (news, marketing), consumer (brands/product consumption) participation, communication (fan/public communication) and community awareness (how much they’re spoken about on social media).

The Brand Reputation Rankings are based on big data collected from September 17 to October 16. Based on multiple aspects, aespa’s Winter topped the list with 600k more index points than BLACKPINK Jennie, who stood firm in her second spot.

In October’s ranking, aespa’s Winter took the first spot, jumping six ranks for a 72.21% rise. Her Brand Reputation Index for the month is 3,889,780. ‘Youtube’, ‘Kwangya’s daughter’ and ‘Savage’ are the high-ranking phrases related to her, whereas her high-ranking keywords are ‘chic, ‘powerful’ and ‘appear’. She even scored incredibly well in the positivity-negativity index, scoring 81.98% positive reactions.

Second and third in line are BLACKPINK’s Jennie and Lisa with 3,273,660 and 3,212,231 index points respectively. Jennie’s Brand Reputation Ranking fell by 26.25% compared to September's rankings, and Lisa’s fell 40.13%.

On fourth, fifth and sixth ranks are aespa’s Karina, Giselle and Ningning. Karina came pretty close to Lisa, with her index of 3,212,053. Giselle followed with a reputation index of 2,185,354 and Nigning with an index of 1,702,907.

BLACKPINK’s Jisoo took the seventh rank, while Red Velvet’s Joy, MAMAMOO’s Hwasa and LOONA’s Chuu took up the eighth, ninth and tenth ranks respectively.

Winter is now the third 4th generation K-pop idol to rank No. 1 on the individual girl group member reputation rankings, after aespa's Karina and ITZY's Yeji.

In other news, SM Entertainment’s aespa has been taking over the world with their first mini-album Savage. There are already multiple discussions online about the group being the ‘new BLACKPINK’.

About the author

Afreen has been a K-Pop Content Specialist at Sportskeeda since 2021. She holds a Bachelor's degree in English Literature, along with a Post-Graduate Diploma in Journalism and Mass Communication. Afreen has over 4+ years of working in various positions including being an entertainment content writer with Pinkvilla’s K-pop division Hallyutalk and CineDope, and as a copywriter at Flying Cursor.

As per Afreen, she loves her work because she gets to write about the things she is obsessed with. Her thorough research and following the two-genuine-source rule of journalism helps her produce the most accurate content, along with helping her be up-to-date with the industry.

Afreen has had the privilege to interview The Rose's frontrunner, WOOSUNG, and LIONESSES, K-pop's first openly LGBTQ+ group. She is a big fan of SEVENTEEN, Stray Kids, BTS, and The Rose for their hard work, sincerity, and the comic relief their shows provide.

When she is off her shift, Afreen explores the streets of Nottingham in the UK, cooks, and listens to new music.

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