By Mike Nicholson

Social media brands filled up the remainder of the top five: 78.8 per cent of shoppers were certain that they recognised the Facebook logo (81.8 per cent of women vs. 75.7 per cent of men), while 73.9 per cent (again, more women than men) identified the Twitter logo.

The survey of 1,000 UK consumers was carried out by activation agency OgilvyAction. It also found that several of the biggest tech brands don’t have the immediate recognition of their logos that they might wish. For example:

• Only 50.4 per cent of consumers definitely recognised the Skype symbol

• A mere 7.8 per cent were certain they knew the LinkedIn logo

• Less than half (47.9 per cent) were certain of the Google+ symbol, even though it contains a ‘g+’ in the centre

• Only 12.3 per cent definitely recognised the MySpace logo

• Around one in five (22.4 per cent) were sure they knew the BlackBerry logo, as opposed to almost a third (32.4 per cent) for Android

• Although 20.8 per cent knew the Tumblr logo, only 10.8 per cent of shoppers knew the Flickr symbol and only 3.6 per cent correctly identified Pinterest

• iTunes tops music logo recognition: 34.4 per cent of shoppers knew the symbol immediately, against only 21.5 per cent for Napster and 16.2 per cent for Spotify.

It also seems, unsurprisingly, that many tech brands are best known by those in the capital. Greater London scored highest for definitive recognition among all UK regions for logos such as Skype, Google+, Flickr and LinkedIn.

The logo is a key element of branding and technology companies live and die by the strength of their brand, particularly in hard-fought sectors such as mobile and social media. The research suggests that several tech brands still have a way to go to be instantly recognisable to the UK man or woman in the street.

The research also looked at the ‘instant recognisability’ of other symbols that UK shoppers might come into contact with on a daily basis. It found that 36.3 per cent of shoppers knew what a QR code looked like and 69.4 per cent recognised a bar code.

In addition, shoppers were asked if they recognised certain retail/product brands from their logos alone: 96.9 per cent identified McDonalds and 76 per cent knew the Pepsi logo, while 39.5 per cent identified Fairtrade. However, only 9.6 per cent identified the Amazon symbol and 5.1 per cent (rising to 6.7 per cent among women) correctly identified Waitrose from its logo.

It’s rare that a shopper will see only a logo with no other clue to which brand is involved, but a recognisable symbol can help underline brand credentials and allow shoppers to identify something when they only have a moment for it to catch their eye.

About the author and OgilvyAction

Mike Nicholson is head of planning at OgilvyAction. OgilvyAction is the global brand activation network of The Ogilvy Group. With its 69 offices and 1700 people, OgilvyAction delivers a broad range of services including experiential marketing, shopper marketing, trade marketing and promotional services. Supporting each of these is a capability in field marketing, digital activation, retail design and analytics that builds brands by creating purchase behaviour. The agency’s client portfolio features Fortune 500 Blue Chip brands and some of the most innovative local marketers around the world. OgilvyAction is part of the WPP Group, one of the world's largest communications services organizations (NASDAQ: WPPGY, www.wpp.com.) For more information, visit our website at www.ogilvyaction.com.