BTS Jimin once again ruled the brand reputation rankings for Kpop idols for May, trailed closely by BTS' Suga and EXO's Baekhyun.
Based on the data collected by the Korea Business Research Institute, Jimin maintained his lead against other idols for this month based on the group's analysis of the consumer participation, media coverage, interaction, and community awareness of 1,332 idols from April 23- May 23.
Jimin held strong to the top spot with a total brand reputation index of 7,730,300. He ranked high for the keywords "Filter," "ARMY," and "album." He also turned up positive results for related terms like "surpass,," "record," and "heartwarming." The BTS member also revealed an 86.06 positive reaction score.
BTS' Suga, who recently collaborated with IU for her digital release "Eight", also landed on the second spot of the survey. Suga ranked high this month with a 115.49 percent surge in his performance from last month. He ended up with a brand reputation index of 6,128,317, Soompi reported.
Apart from his successful collaboration with IU, the rising interest in Suga may have something to do with his anticipated comeback.
Big Hit Entertainment recently released teasers of Suga's potential comeback under his alter ego AGUST D. At first, fans were unsure whether the teasers were for Suga or Jungkook but Apple Music's recent post confirmed that Suga's follow up to his AGUST D mixtape in 2014 was finally dropping.
In Apple's artist post, Suga's profile image was updated to feature the artist wearing similar clothing to the ones shown in Big Hit Entertainment's teasers. They also show Suga bound tightly by ropes while staring defiantly at the camera.
With the development, ARMYs became excited over the confirmation of their theories and anticipated Bit Hit's official announcement on the release date. It can be recalled that Suga originally planned to release the follow-up mixtape last year but chose to delay the reveal to work further on his music.
Meanwhile, the third spot for top male idols this month belonged to EXO's Baekhyun, who ended a brand reputation index of 5,619,532. Baekhyun also saw a rise in his performance by 72.78 percent since last month. Baekhyun is scheduled to release his second solo album Delight on May 25.
Other idols who made it to the top 10 for May were Kang Daniel, Oh My Girl's Arin, BTS's V, Park Ji Hoon, Girls Generation Taeyeon, and BIGBANG's G-Dragon, All Kpop reported.
