Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon. [Seoul Metropolitan Government]
Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon. [Seoul Metropolitan Government]

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon has topped the regional governors and mayors category of the K-Brand Index compiled by the Asia Brand Research Institute.

The big data evaluation firm analyzed about 181.3 million online data points covering the heads of 16 regional governments nationwide throughout July, placing Oh first in the regional leaders category.

The K-Brand Index is a big data system developed by the Asia Brand Research Institute in collaboration with domestic and international researchers. Unlike conventional big data analysis systems, it incorporates verification by a panel of field advisers at every stage, from candidate sampling to index selection.

Oh was followed by Gyeonggi Province Governor Choo Mi-ae in second place, Busan Mayor Jeon Jae-soo in third, Incheon Mayor Park Chan-dae in fourth, Daegu Mayor Choo Kyung-ho in fifth, Min Hyeong-bae, mayor of the South Jeolla-Gwangju integrated special city, in sixth, South Chungcheong Province Governor Park Soo-hyun in seventh, Ulsan Mayor Kim Sang-uk in eighth, North Gyeongsang Province Governor Lee Cheol-woo in ninth, and Gangwon Province Governor Woo Sang-ho in 10th.

The regional leaders category reflects online index figures only, with offline data not yet incorporated. Detailed index information and in-depth analysis are available on the institute's official website and Instagram account.

The K-Brand Index score is calculated by combining figures across eight sub-indexes — trend, media, social, positive, negative, activation, community and AI — with weighting exclusion criteria applied to each.

In the advertising model category announced last month, national team footballer Son Heung-min ranked first, followed by singer Lim Young-woong, G-Dragon, Park Ji-hoon, Byeon Woo-seok, Yoo Jae-seok, Jang Won-young and Karina.

The Asia Brand Research Institute, founded in 2016, presents the "K-Brand Grand Prize" each year based on big data evaluation scores for major companies and individuals.


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