Google has been named brand of the year for the first time, beating Coca-Cola, Nike, Apple, Nokia, Ikea and BMW. It did this without any advertising.
More can be found at the BrandChannel.com article who conducted the survey: http://brandchannel.com/features_effect.asp?id=143
Mark Hurst from GoodExperience.com also comments on the survey, looking at the benefits and drawbacks of such a result.
http://www.goodexperience.com/columns/03/0305.brand.html
A summary of the survey results is also available at internet.com here
http://cyberatlas.internet.com/markets/advertising/article/0,,5941_1582831,00.html