Coca Cola still uncontested leader among strongest global brands. - The Interbrand agency's 2008 list of best global brands illustrates changes in the brand hierarchy. Although Coca-Cola (US), number one in 2007, is still the world's uncontested brand leader with an estimated value of $66.67bn (+2% on last year's figures), the banking sector is on the decline with several players making net losses. Merrill Lynch (US) has experienced the sharpest fall from 22nd position to 34th place in the list. The value of the company has fallen by 21% over the last 12 months. IBM is in second place (US; $59.03bn; +3%) and exchanges its 3rd place for the first time in ten years to Microsoft (US; $59.01bn; +1%), which was in 2nd place last year, followed by GE (US) in the same position with $53.09bn (+3%) and Nokia (Finland) again in 5th position with $35.94bn. The list also shows that: 1) Google (US; $25.59bn; +43%) rose highest in the list from 20th to 10th place; 2) H&M (Sweden; $13.84bn) makes the most spectacular entry onto the list straight in at 22nd place; 3) As well as H&M, seven new names appear on the list (as opposed to five in 2007). These include Thomson Reuters (Canada; 44th), Blackberry (Canada; 73rd), Ferrari (Italy; 93rd), Armani (Italy; 94th), Marriott (US; 96th), FedEX (US; 99th) and Visa (US; 100th); 4) Google, Apple, Zara and Nintendo, were already fast climbing the ladder last year and continue with this rise in 2008.