A new report released by Interbrand, a global consulting firm, has described Coca-Cola as the world's most valuable brand, as it is worth $68.7 billion in brand value, which is a 3% rise from a year ago. The dollar total of this sum was calculated by Interbrand as the net present value of earnings the brand is expected to generate in the future.

The report says that the company's aggressiveness during the recession was the main driving force behind its top ranking. The company unveiled 700 products worldwide in 2008 alone. Jez Frampton, Interbrand's CEO, said: "Coke is relentlessly focused on in-store marketing and packaging. They really know how to look after the brand."

For the past nine years, Coke has maintained the top spot in the Interbrand rankings, with other brands like IBM, Microsoft, GE, Nokia, McDonald's, Google, Toyota, Intel and Disney, respectively, following Coke in the study that ranks top 100 brands.

A brand is required to offer publicly available financial data in order to qualify for the list, and it must also book at least one-third of its revenues from outside its country of origin. Frampton continued, "What's perhaps even more telling than the actual rankings are the year-over-year changes.

The recession has produced a few stars. Take Google, for example. Its value jumped 25%, to $32 billion, in 2009. Google has romped through our league tables over the last three or four years."

Furthermore, Google's diversification efforts are also applauded by the report, which considers the new advertising models and the Android phone software that helped prop up the company's numbers. "Another tech outfit, Amazon, is also surging: the Circuit City bankruptcy and struggles at the Borders bookstore chain are driving traffic to the site. Plus, the Kindle shows that you can still innovate in a downturn. The online retailer jumped 15 spots in the rankings, to 43," said the report.