British Airways
Although there were still strikes early in the year, at least the loss of bags was largely out of the press in 2011 and this was the year when the strikes were settled. For the "world's favourite airline" a visible bounce back from a poor 2010 was a minimum requirement. The new campaign had some effect at the end of the year.

Toyota
The company weathered the storm of product recalls surprisingly well and recovered significantly in 2011, highlighting the strength of the brand with a focus on what is generally a reliable product line. A case study in how to manage a crisis.

BP
BP had to recover from a terrible 2010 provided there were no more pollution catastrophes which there weren't in 2011. Maybe the persistent nudging that BP stock was a constituent part of all our pension schemes did the trick in raising up the metrics.

Eurostar
Failing to get your customers home or on holiday for Christmas in 2010 was a savage act of self-harm but the weather was kinder in 2011 and Eurostar got the benefits in a market where one could argue that they have a dominant position.

HTC
HTC is a strong and growing brand in the mobile device market although their success in smartphones has not been replicated in the tablet market where Android devices have struggled. HTC stole a march on a number of traditional handset brands but is likely to find it more difficult in the coming year as major electronics companies compete more heavily. Despite this, the customer base is currently loyal and recommendation is high.

Google
Google has two brands in the top Buzz Improvers 2011 list - Android and Chrome. The portable device operating system is now the dominant force in smartphones despite the various versions available and the problems of designing by committee. Chrome Buzz is coming off a low base but increasingly challenging market leader Microsoft Internet Explorer as a genuine competitor.

Kraft & Cadbury
Two brands that are joined at the hip, particularly in 2010, when the "traditional, non-conformist" Cadbury was taken over by "American corporate raider", Kraft. Most consumers see business as usual now the takeover has gone through and even a House of Commons parliamentary committee expressing apparent disgust at what they perceived to be contempt by the Kraft CEO didn't damage the brand's revival.

Twitter
The incidents of Twitter being used to “out” a number of celebrities from injunctions, which newspapers were unable to name, drove Buzz scores down in 2011. However, the recovery was aided by reports of the positive role Twitter played in the riots and the clean-up effort afterwards. Twitter also had the highest audience size growth figures of the top 5 global social networks according to comScore, and with official #tags increasingly being used on mainstream TV programmes to encourage interaction with viewers along with an expected increase in Smart TVs penetration, Twitter’s growth, usage and consequently the attention it receives is expected to increase further – what remains to be seen is the impact on Buzz scores.